ECLECTIC  ENGLISH  CLASSICS 

.....  1IH11  ,,,„  „,„  I,,,  ,ui 


E  ORATIONS 


_ 
ON 


BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT 
THE  CHARACTER  OF  WASHINGTON 
AND  THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH 


BY 


DANIEL  WEBSTER 


I 


AMERICAN   •   BOOK  •    COMPANY 

''W 

NEW  YORK-  CINCINNATI  •  CHICAGO 


ECLECTIC  ENGLISH  CLASSICS 


THE  ORATIONS  ON 

BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT 
THE  CHARACTER.  OF  WASHINGTON 
AND  THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH 


BY 

DANIEL  WEBSTER 

t  V 


NEW  YORK  •  I  •  CINCINNATI  .  :  .  CHICAGO 

AMERICAN   BOOK  COMPANY 


Copyright,  7894,  by 
AMERICAN  BOOK  COMPANY. 


WEBSTER'S  ORATIONS  EC.  ENG.  CLAS. 
W.  P.  6 


Printed  by  permission  of  MESSRS.  LITTLE,  BROWN,  &  Co. 
the  authorized  publishers  of  Webster's  works. 


INTRODUCTION. 


IT  is  a  fact  worthy  of  notice  that,  among  all  the  masters  of  elo 
quence  known  to  history,  only  four  have  produced  works  which 
have  been  generally  recognized  as  contributions  to  the  perma 
nent  literature  of  the  world.  These  were  Demosthenes  in  an 
cient  Athens,  Cicero  in  old  Rome,  Edmund  Burke  in  Great 
Britain,  and  Daniel  Webstei  in  America.  A  comparison  of  the 
public  discourses  of  these  four  great  orators  reveals,  of  course, 
many  differences  resulting  from  the  diversity  of  race,  time,  cir 
cumstance,  and  the  character  of  the  audiences  to  whom  they 
were  addressed.  A  closer  examination,  however,  will  disclose 
numerous  similarities  in  their  fundamental  construction,  going 
far  to  show  that  the  principles  of  true  eloquence  are  always  and 
everywhere  the  same,  and  that  the  art  which  swayed  the  minds 
of  multitudes  of  men  twenty  centuries  ago  remains  in  essential 
points  as  unchanged  as  human  thought  itself.  Between  the  ora 
tions  of  Demosthenes,  so  distinctively  ancient  and  Grecian,  and 
those  of  Webster,  so  distinctively  modern  and  American,  one 
may  detect  a  striking  resemblance.  Both  are  characterized  by 
the  same  sustained  appeal  to  the  understanding  and  by  the 
same  clear-cut,  vigorous,  and  perfectly  intelligible  course  of  rea 
soning.  In  their  unadorned  simplicity  each  is  the  work  of  a 
sculptor  rather  than  painter.  "  To  test  Webster's  oratory,  which 

M41776 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

has  ever  been  very  attractive  to  me,"  said  the  late  Dr.  Francis 
Lieber,  "  I  read  a  portion  of  my  favorite  speeches  of  Demos 
thenes,  and  then  read,  always  aloud,  parts  of  Webster ;  then  re 
turned  to  the  Athenian  :  and  Webster  stood  the  test."  This  re 
semblance  was  not  the  result  of  any  study  of  ancient  models  on 
Mr.  Webster's  part,  nor  of  any  conscious  or  unconscious  effort 
to  imitate  the  masterpieces  of  Athenian  eloquence.  It  was  due 
rather  to  a  similarity  of  intellectual  powers  wholly  independent 
of  time,  or  race,  or  other  environment. 

The  quality  of  Webster's  imagination,  which  was  of  an  histori 
cal  rather  than  poetic  cast,  had  much  to  do  with  the  power  and 
peculiar  charm  of  his  oratory.  But  it  was  his  simplicity  of  dic 
tion,  and  his  perfect  mastery  of  pure,  idiomatic  English,  which 
gave  to  his  discourses  their  distinctive  classic  elegance,  and  made 
them  worthy  of  a  permanent  place  in  our  literature.  As  speci 
mens,  therefore,  of  a  correct,  clear,  and  vigorous  style  of  com 
position,  full  of  warmth  and  vitality,  these  orations  are  worthy 
of  the  most  careful  attention  of  every  one  who  would  perfect  him 
self  in  the  use  of  the  English  tongue ;  as  notable  examples  of 
persuasive  discourse,  logical,  forcible,  and  convincing,  they  es 
pecially  commend  themselves  to  those  who  aspire  to  distinction 
as  public  speakers ;  as  containing  lessons  of  the  purest  and  most 
disinterested  patriotism,  they  appeal  to  Americans  everywhere, 
and  should  be  read  and  studied  by  every  American  youth. 

Daniel  Webster  was  born  in  Salisbury  (now  Franklin),  N.H., 
Jan.  18,  1782.  His  father,  who  was  a  farmer,  had  served  as 
a  soldier  in  both  the  French  and  Indian  and  the  Revolution 
ary  Wars,  and  later  became  a  member  of  the  State  Legis 
lature,  and  judge  of  the  county  court.  Being  brought  up  in 
poverty,  in  a  region  at  that  time  the  very  outskirts  of  civiliza- 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

tion,  the  boy  had  none  of  the  opportunities  which  are  now  sup 
posed  to  be  indispensable  to  the  making  of  a  great  man.  His 
mother  taught  him  to  read,  and  as  the  schools  which  he  attended 
during  his  childhood  were  extremely  inefficient,  it  is  probable 
that  the  best  part  of  his  early  education  was  acquired  at  home. 
Being  a  delicate  child,  he  was  generally  exempt  from  the  hard 
tasks  required  of  other  boys  in  his  condition  of  life,  and,  while 
much  of  his  time  was 'devoted  to  play,  he  developed  a  passionate 
eagerness  for  books.  "  I  read  what  I  could  get  to  read,"  he 
says,  "  went  to  school  when  I  could,  and  when  not  at  school  was 
a  farmer's  youngest  boy,  not  good  for  much,  for  want  of  health 
.and  strength,  but  expected  to  do  something.  In  those  boyish 
days  there  were  two  things  which  I  did  dearly  love, — reading  and 
playing,  passions  which  did  not  cease  to  struggle  when  boyhood 
was  over,  (have  they  yet  altogether  ?)  and  in  regard  to  which 
neither  cita  mors  nor  the  victoria  laeta  could  be  said  of  either." 

When  fourteen  years  of  age,  he  was  sent  to  the  Phillips  Exeter 
Academy.  There  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with  the  world, 
suffering  much  from  the  ridicule  of  his  schoolmates,  to  whom  his 
rustic  clothes  and  uncouth  manners  were  a  source  of  great  mer 
riment.  Although  he  made  rapid  progress  in  his  studies,  his  lack 
of  self-confidence  was  such,  that  he  found  it  impossible  to  stand 
up  and  "speak  a  piece  "  before  the  school.  At  the  end  of  nine 
months  it  was  thought  best  that  he  should  return  home ;  and  his 
father  made  arrangements  whereby  he  should  continue  his  studies 
under  the  tuition  of  a  clergyman,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Wood,  at 
Boscawen.  This  change  was  made  in  order  that  the  lad  might 
the  more  quickly  complete  his  preparation  for  college ;  for,  not 
withstanding  the  poverty  of  the  family,  his  father  had  decided 
to  give  him  as  thorough  an  education  as  was  then  available.  He 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

remained  with  Dr.  Wood  only  six  months,  and  in  August,  1797, 
contrived  to  enter  Dartmouth  College,  from  which  he  was  duly 
graduated  in  1801.  The  college  was  at  that  time  scarcely  equal 
in  efficiency  to  any  well-equipped  high  school  of  the  present  day ; 
and  Webster's  scholarship  was  neither  extensive  nor  profound. 
He  read  everything  that  came  to  hand,  and  whatever  was  worthy 
of  remembrance  he  never  forgot.  He  acquired  a  fair  knowledge 
of  Latin  literature,  and  gained  a  smattering  of  Greek  and  mathe 
matics.  He  was  not  only  considered  the  best  general  scholar  in 
the  college,  but.he  was  looked  upon  by  both  the  faculty  and  the 
students  as  a  remarkable  man  with  an  extraordinary  career  before 
him.  He  soon  overcame  the  boyish  timidity  which  had  been  so 
much  in  his  way  at  Exeter,  and  developed  an  especial  inclination 
for  public  speaking.  Indeed,  the  fame  of  his  eloquence  extended 
beyond  the  college  walls ;  and  in  1800  he  was  invited  by  the  towns 
people  of  Hanover  to  deliver  the  Fourth-of-July  oration  in  their 
village.  He  had  not  then  completed  his  eighteenth  year ;  yet  in 
that  youthful  speech,  his  first  public  utterance  on  questions  of  na 
tional  import,  there  was  a  distinct  foreshadowing  of  the  enduring 
work  which  he  was  afterwards  to  perform  for  his  countrymen  and 
the  world.  It  was,  of  course,  crude  and  imitative,  as  would  be  ex 
pected  of  a  boy ;  its  language  was  florid  in  the  extreme,  and  its 
general  style  was  that  of  the  "spread  eagle,"  full  of  bombast  and 
figures  of  rhetoric ;  but  in  its  thought  and  leading  purpose  there 
breathed  the  same  manly,  patriotic  spirit  that  runs  through  all 
his  maturer  utterances,  and  distinguishes  them  from  the  com 
monplace  oratory  of  political  demagogues. 

Immediately  after  leaving  college,  Mr.  Webster  began  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Thomas  W.  Thompson  of  Salis 
bury ;  but,  wishing  to  earn  money  to  help  his  elder  brother 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

Ezekiel  to  go  through  college,  he  soon  afterwards  went  to  Frye- 
burg,  Me.,  and  took  charge  of  a  small  academy  there.  In  the 
following  year  he  returned  to  Salisbury,  and  remained  with  Mr. 
Thompson  until  1 804 ;  then,  desiring  better  opportunities  for 
extending  his  legal  knowledge,  he  went  to  Boston,  where  he  en 
tered  the  office  of  Christopher  Gore,  and  where,  in  1805,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  He  began  practicing  in  Boscawen ;  and  in 
1807,  having  built  up  a  fairly  good  business  there,  he  turned  it 
over  to  his  brother  Ezekiel,  and  removed  to  Portsmouth,  then 
the  capital  of  the  State.  Being  now  fairly  established  in  his  pro 
fession,  he  was  married  in  1808  to  Grace  Fletcher  of  Hopkin- 
ton.  He  soon  distinguished  himself  as  the  foremost  lawyer  in 
the  State,  and  attracted  much  attention  by  his  eloquent  utter 
ances  in  opposing  the  declaration  of  wrar  against  Great  Britain. 
In  1812  he  was  elected  to  Congress  by  the  Federalists,  and  on 
taking  his  seat  was  placed  on  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs. 
The  first  public  act  which  brought  him  into  prominence  as  a 
member  of  Congress  was  his  introduction  of  a  series  of  resolu 
tions  calling  for  an  inquiry  concerning  the  announcement  to  the 
United  States  of  the  revocation  of  Napoleon's  decrees  against 
American  shipping.  This  was  followed  a  few  months  later  by 
his  first  great  speech  in  the  House,  —  a  speech  in  opposition 
to  a  bill  for  the  encouragement  of  enlistments.  In  1814  he 
was  reflected  to  Congress;  and  in  1816,  at  the  expiration  of  his 
second  term,  he  removed  to  Boston,  where  for  seven  years  he 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In 
1818,  by  his  management  of  the  celebrated  Dartmouth  College 
case,  he  achieved  a  success  which  not  only  placed  him  at  the 
head  of  the  American  bar,  but  gave  him  great  prominence  as  an 
able  exponent  and  uncompromising  defender  of  the  Federal  Con- 


i  o  INTR  OD  UC  TION. 

stitution.  The  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire  had  passed  an  act 
virtually  abrogating  the  original  charter  of  the  college,  and  pro 
viding  for  the  appointment  of  a  new  board  of  trustees.  The  old 
board  contested  the  legality  of  this  act ;  and  a  suit  against  the 
new  board,  in  action  of  trover  for  the  college  seal,  was  carried 
to  the  Superior  Court  of  the  State,  where  it  was  decided  in  favor 
of  the  defendants.  Thereupon  the  case  was  carried  to  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States,  where,  through  Mr.  Webster's 
management,  the  judgment  of  the  State  court  was  reversed,  and 
the  act  of  the  State  Legislature  was  declared  to  be  a  violation  of 
that  clause  of  the  Federal  Constitution  which  prohibits  the  States 
from  passing  laws  in  impairment  of  contracts.  The  decision 
was  of  national  importance,  since  it  "  went  further,  perhaps,  than 
any  other  in  our  history  towards  limiting  State  sovereignty,  and 
extending  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  Supreme  Court." 

On  Dec.  22,  1820,  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  Mr.  Webster  delivered  his  famous  dis 
course  on  the  "  First  Settlement  of  New  England," — the  first  of 
those  great  efforts  which  placed  him  among  the  foremost  orators 
of  the  world.  In  1822  he  was  again  elected  a  representative  to 
Congress,  this  time  from  Boston;  and  in  1824  and  1826  he  was 
reflected.  In  1827  he  resigned  his  membership  in  the  House  to 
accept  a  seat  in  the  Senate,  where  he  remained,  by  successive 
reelections,  until  1841.  His  oration  on  the  laying  of  the  corner 
stone  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  in  1825,  and  that  on  Adams 
and  Jefferson  (1826),  are  among  the  noblest  historical  addresses 
ever  delivered.  "  The  spirit  of  these  orations  is  that  of  the 
broadest  patriotism  enlightened  by  a  clear  perception  of  the 
fundamental  importance  of  the  Federal  union  between  the  States, 
and  an  ever-present  consciousness  of  the  mighty  future  of  our 


INTRODUCTION.  n 

country,  and  its  moral  significance  in  the  history  of  the  world." 
In  the  Bunker  Hill  oration  he  appeared  at  his  best.  His  style 
had  been  perfected,  and  he  "  touched  his  highest  point  in  the 
difficult  task  of  commemorative  oratory."  Eighteen  years  later, 
upon  the  completion  of  the  monument,  he  was  called  upon  to 
deliver  a  second  address  at  the  same  place  and  upon  the  same 
theme.  This  later  effort,  although  it  failed  to  attain  to  the  mas 
sive  dignity  and  grandeur  of  the  first,  must  always  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  finest  examples  of  patriotic  oratory  to  which  Americans 
have  ever  listened.  \  ' 

From  the  beginning  of  his  career  in  the  United  States  Senate, 
Mr.  Webster  was  naturally  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  influ 
ential  men  in  the  nation,  and,  had  he  been  more  distinctively  a 
partisan,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  would  eventually  have 
occupied  the  President's  chair.  But  his  patriotism  was  superior 
to  personal  ambition ;  and  his  powers  as  a  statesman  and  orator, 
instead  of  being  directed  to  the  aggrandizement  of  .the  party  with 
which  he  was  affiliated,  were  devoted  to  the  defense  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  In  1830  he  de 
livered  his  celebrated  second  speech  on  Foote's  resolution,  gen 
erally  known  as  the  "  Reply  to  Hayne,"  in  which  he  reached  the 
culmination  of  his  career  as  an  orator.  It  was  delivered  in  refu 
tation  of  a  speech  by  Mr.  Hayne  accusing  the  New-England 
States  of  attempting  to  aggrandize  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
all  the  rest  of  the  Union,  and  defending  South  Carolina  in  her 
proposed  policy  of  nullification.  Although  Mr.  Webster's  fame 
extended  in  the  years  which  followed,  and  he  made  many  other 
speeches,  he  never  again  attained  to  so  high  a  point  as  in  that 
remarkable  and  memorable  discourse.  It  was  a  speech  for 
which,  as  he  himself  said,  his  whole  life  had  be^en,  in  a.  certain 


1 2  IN  TROD  UC  TION. 

sense  a  preparation.  Of  all  the  speeches  ever  made  in  Congress 
there  has  probably  never  been  another  that  has  been  so  widely 
read,  or  has  had  so  great  influence  in  the  shaping  of  men's 
thoughts.  In  1841  Mr.  Webster  was  appointed  Secretary  of 
State  by  President  Harrison,  and  upon  the  death  of  the  latter  he 
was  continued  in  office  by  President  Tyler  until  after  the  com 
pletion  of  the  famous  Ashburton  Treaty  with  Great  Britain,  in 
1842.  He  then  returned  to  the  practice  of  law  in  Boston  ;  but  in 
1844  he  was  again  appointed  to  the  Senate,  where  he  distin 
guished  himself  by  opposing  the  admission  of  Texas  as  a  slave 
State,  and  strenuously  combating  the  prosecution  of  the  Mexican 
War.  In  1848  and  again  in  1852  he  was  a  candidate  before  the 
national  convention  of  Whigs  for  the  nomination  to  the  Presi 
dency,  but  was  defeated  in  the  first  case  by  General  Taylor  and 
in  the  second  by  General  Scott.  In  1850,  led  by  a  zealous  desire 
to  promote  peace  between  the  opposing  political  factions,  he  was 
induced  to  give  his  adhesion  to  Clay's  "  compromise  measures," 
and  on  the  yth  of  March  delivered  his  last  great  speech,  —  a 
speech  in  which  he  favored  the  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  opposed  the  Wilmot  Proviso  for  the  exclusion  of  slav 
ery  from  the  new  Territories  thereafter  acquired  by  the  United 
States.  This  speech  was  a  great  disappointment  to  his  friends, 
and  lost  him  the  support  and  confidence  of  the  Whig  party.  In 
the  latter  part  of  the  same  year,  however,  he  was  appointed  Sec 
retary  of  State  by  President  Fillmore.  This  position  he  held  un 
til  May,  1852,  when  he  resigned  on  account  of  ill  health,  and 
retired  to  his  home  at  Marshfield,  Mass.,  where  he  died  on  the 
24th  of  October  in  the  same  year. 

In  the  great  influence  which  Mr.  Webster,  as  a  public  speaker, 
wielded  over  the  minds  of  his  hearers,  he  was  aided  by  his  re- 


INTROD  UCTION.  1 3 

markable  physical  attributes.  He  possessed  in  a  wonderful  de 
gree  an  indefinable  personal  magnetism  which  impressed  every 
one  with  a  sense  of  "his  greatness.  His  face,  his  eyes,  his  voice, 
were  such  that  whoever  looked  upon  him  and  heard  him  speak, 
felt  intuitively  that  he  was  a  man  of  most  extraordinary  powers. 
Sydney  Smith,  when  he  saw  him,  exclaimed,  "  Good  heavens!  he 
is  a  small  cathedral  by  himself ;  "  and  Carlyle,  writing  of  him, 
said,  "He  is  a  magnificent  specimen.  As  a  logic  fencer  or 
parliamentary  Hercules,  one  would  incline  to  back  him  at  first 
sight  against  all  the  extant  world.  The  tanned  complexion ;  the 
amorphous  crag-like  face  ;  the  dull  black  eyes  under  the  precipice 
of  brows,  like  dull  anthracite  furnaces  needing  only  to  be  blown ; 
the  mastiff  mouth  accurately  closed,  —  I  have  not  traced  so  much 
of  silent  Berserker  rage  that  I  remember  of  in  any  man." 

Of  the  quality  of  Webster's  oratory,  the  Hon.  Rufus  Choate 
says,  "  His  multiform  eloquence  became  at  once  so  much  acces 
sion  to  permanent  literature,  in  the  strictest  sense  solid,  attractive, 
and  rich.  Recall  what  pervaded  all  these  forms  of  display,  and 
every  effort  in  every  form :  that  union  of  naked  intellect,  in  its 
largest  measure,  which  penetrates  to  the  exact  truth  of  the  matter 
in  hand  by  intuition  or  by  inference,  and  discerns  everything 
which  may  make  it  intelligible,  probable,  and  credible  to  an 
other,  with  an  emotional  and  moral  nature  profound,  passionate, 
and  ready  to  kindle,  and  with  imagination  enough  to  supply  a 
hundredfold  more  of  illustration  and  aggrandizement  than  his 
taste  suffered  him  to  accept ;  that  union  of  greatness  of  soul  with 
depth  of  heart  which  made  his  speaking  almost  more  an  exhibi 
tion  of  character  than  of  mere  genius ;  the  style  not  merely  pure, 
clear  Saxon,  but  so  constructed,  so  numerous  as  far  as  becomes 
prose,  so  forcible,  so  abounding  in  unlabored  felicities,  the  words 


14  INTRODUCTION. 

so  choice,  the  epithet  so  pictured,  the  matter  absolute  truth,  or 
the  most  exact  and  spacious  resemblance  the  human  wit  can  de 
vise  ;  the  treatment  of  the  subject,  if  you  have  regard  to  the  kind 
of  truth  he  had  to  handle, — political,  ethical,  legal,  —  as  deep 
as  Paley's,  or  Locke's,  or  Butler's,  .  .  .  yet  that  depth  and 
that  completeness  of  sense  made  transparent  as  crystal  waters, 
raised  on  winged  language,  vivified,  fused,  and  poured  along  in 
a  tide  of  emotion  fervid,  and  incapable  to  be  withstood." 

The  history  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument  and  of  the  circum 
stances  attending  the  delivery  of  Webster's  famous  orations — 
the  one  at  the  laying  of  its  corner  stone,  the  other  at  its  comple 
tion —  may  be  briefly  narrated. 

Gen.  Joseph  Warren,  the  hero  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill, 
and  the  first  prominent  martyr  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  was 
buried  upon  the  hill  on  the  day  following  the  action,  June  18, 
1775.  Early  in  the  following  year  the  Massachusetts  Lodge  of 
Masons,  of  which  he  had  been  the  presiding  officer,  applied  to 
the  Provisional  Government  of  the  Colony  for  permission  to  take 
up  his  remains,  and  inter  them  with  the  usual  ceremonies  and 
solemnities  of  the  order.  The  request  was  granted,  on  condition 
that  nothing  should  be  done  that  would  prevent  the  government 
from  erecting  at  some  future  time  a  monument  to  his  memory. 
This  may  be  regarded  as  the  first  movement  made  towards  com 
memorating  in  any  way  the  historic  struggle  on  Bunker  Hill ;  and 
yet,  although  a  funeral  procession  was  formed,  and  a  fitting  eulogy 
on  Gen.  Warren  was  delivered,  no  measures  were  taken  towards 
the  building  of  a  monument. 

On  the  8th  of  April,  1777,  however,  a  resolution  was  adopted 
by  the  Continental  Congress,  directing  that  monuments  should 
be  erected  to  Gen.  Warren  in  Boston  and  to  Gen.  Mercer  at  Fred- 


INTROD  UCTION.  1 5 

ericksburg;  but  no  steps  were  ever  taken  towards  the  carrying 
out  of  this  resolution. 

In  1794  the  lodge  of  Masons  at  Charlestown  decided  to 
erect  a  monument  to  Gen.  Warren  at  their  own  expense.  Land 
for  that  purpose  was  donated  to  the  lodge  by  the  Hon.  James 
Russell  of  Charlestown,  and  the  monument  was  dedicated  with 
appropriate  ceremonies  on  the  2d  of  December  of  the  same 
year.  This  monument  was  a  wooden  pillar,  eighteen  feet  in 
height,  raised  on  a  pedestal  eight  feet  square,  at  an  elevation  of 
ten  feet  from  the  ground.  On  the  summit  of  the  pillar  was  a 
gilt  urn,  and  on  the  south  side  of  the  pedestal  an  appropriate 
inscription  was  engraved. 

It  was  not  until  still  thirty  years  later  that  any  decisive  steps 
were  taken  towards  the  building  of  a  monument  which  should 
commemorate  in  a  general  way  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and 
should  stand  as  the  nation's  expression  of  honor  and  gratitude  to 
those  who  fell  there  in  the  defense  of  American  liberty.  In  1824 
an  association  was  formed,  under  the  leadership  of  William  Tudor, 
Esq.,  to  whose  enthusiasm  and  perseverance  the  final  success  of 
the  undertaking  was  largely  due.  After  various  private  confer 
ences  among  those  who  were  most  deeply  interested  in  the  proj 
ect,  it  was  decided  to  lay  the  corner  stone  of  the  monument  on 
the  i  yth  of  June,  1825,  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  battle  ;  and, 
in  order  to  excite  enthusiasm  in  favor  of  the  work,  Gen.  La 
fayette,  at  that  time  the  nation's  guest,  was  invited  to  be  present, 
and  participate  in  the  ceremonies.  Free  transportation  was  of 
fered  to  all  surviving  soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  enlist  a  national  interest  in  the  patriotic  occasion. 

"The  celebration,"  says  Mr.  Frothingham,  "was  unequaled 
in  magnificence  by  anything  of  the  kind  that  had  been  seen  in 


1 6  1NTR  OD  UC  TIG  A  \ 

New  England.  The  morning  proved  propitious.  The  air  was 
cool,  the  sky  was  clear,  and  timely  showers  the  previous  day  had 
brightened  the  vesture  of  Nature  into  its  loveliest  hue.  Delighted 
thousands  flocked  into  Boston  to  bear  a  part  in  the  proceedings, 
or  to  witness  the  spectacle.  At  about  ten  o'clock  a  procession 
moved  from  the  State  House  towards  Bunker  Hill.  The  military, 
in  their  fine  uniforms,  formed  the  van.  About  two  hundred  vet 
erans  of  the  Revolution,  of  whom  forty  were  survivors  of  the 
battle,  rode  in  barouches  next  to  the  escort.  These  venerable 
men,  the  relics  of  a  past  generation,  with  emaciated  frames,  tot 
tering  limbs,  and  trembling  voices,  constituted  a  touching  spec 
tacle.  Some  wore,  as  honorable  decorations,  their  old  fighting 
equipments ;  and  some  bore  the  scars  of  still  more  honorable 
wounds.  Glistening  eyes  constituted  their  answer  to  the  enthu 
siastic  cheers  of  the  grateful  multitudes  who  lined  their  pathway, 
and  cheered  their  progress.  To  this  patriot  band  succeeded  the 
Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association ;  then  the  Masonic  frater 
nity,  in  their  splendid  regalia,  thousands  in  number;  then  La 
fayette,  continually  welcomed  by  tokens  of  love  and  gratitude, 
and  the  invited  guests ;  then  a  long  array  of  societies,  with 
their  various  badges  and  banners.  It  was  a  splendid  procession, 
and  of  such  length  that  the  front  nearly  reached  Charlestown 
Bridge  ere  the  rear  had  left  Boston  Common.  It  proceeded  to 
Breed's  Hill,  where  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Freemasons,  the 
President  of  the  Monument  Association,  and  Gen.  Lafayette  per 
formed  the  ceremony  of  laying  the  corner  stone  in  the  presence 
of  a  vast  concourse  of  people."  The  procession  then  moved 
to  the  northern  declivity  of  the  hill,  where  Mr.  Webster  delivered 
his  oration  to  a  large  and  appreciative  audience. 

When  the  corner  stone  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  was  thus 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

laid  in  1825,  no  definite  plan  for  its  construction  had  been  de 
cided  upon.  Among  other  designs  for  the  proposed  monument, 
one  submitted  by  Solomon  Willard,  an  architect  of  Boston,  was 
finally  adopted ;  and  in  1827  the  foundation  was  laid  and  the 
work  of  construction  begun.  The  funds  on  hand,  amounting 
to  about  $55,000,  were  soon  exhausted,  however,  and  in  the  fol 
lowing  year  the  work  was  temporarily  abandoned.  In  1834  a 
renewed  effort  was  made,  a  considerable  amount  of  money  was 
raised  by  subscription,  and  the  building  of  the  great  stone  shaft 
was  renewed.  But  the  committee  having  the  affair  in  charge 
soon  found  itself  without  further  available  means,  and  prog 
ress  was  again  suspended.  In  1840  the  ladies  of  Boston  and 
the  vicinity  took  hold  of  the  enterprise.  A  fair  was  held  in 
Faneuil  Hall,  to  which  every  woman  in  the  United  States  had 
been  invited  to  contribute,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  increase 
the  list  of  subscriptions.  The  result  was,  that  a  contract  was 
soon  afterwards  entered  into  with  Mr.  Savage  of  Boston,  to  fin 
ish  the  monument  for  $43,000.  The  work  was  pushed  forward 
with  all  reasonable  dispatch,  and  the  last  stone  was  raised  to  the 
apex  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  July  23,  1842. 

The  monument,  which  is  in  the  form  of  an  obelisk,  is  built  of 
Quincy  granite,  is  thirty  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base,  and  about 
fifteen  feet  at  the  top  of  the  truncated  part.  It  consists  of  ninety 
courses  of  stone,  six  of  them  below  the  ground,  and  eighty-four 
above.  It  was  intended  that  it  should  be  two  hundred  and 
twenty  feet  high ;  but  the  precise  height  is  two  hundred  and 
twenty-one  feet.  The  observatory  at  the  top  is  seventeen  feet 
high,  and  eleven  feet  in  diameter.  The  cap  stone,  or  apex,  is 
a  single  stone  four  feet  square  at  the  base,  and  three  feet  six 
inches  in  height,  weighing  two  tons  and  a  half. 

2 


1 8  INTROD  UCTION. 

It  was  arranged  by  the  directors  that  the  completion  of  the 
work  should  be  celebrated  on  the  iyth  of  the  following  June,  the 
sixty-eighth  anniversary  of  the  battle ;  and  Mr.  Webster  was 
invited  to  deliver  the  oration.  "  Many  circumstances,"  says 
Edward  Everett,  "  conspired  to  increase  the  interest  of  the  occa 
sion.  .  .  .  The  President  of  the  United  States  and  his  Cabinet 
had  accepted  invitations  to  be  present ;  delegations  of  the  de 
scendants  of  New  England  were  present  from  the  remotest  parts 
of  the  Union ;  one  hundred  and  eight  surviving  veterans  of  the 
Revolution,  among  whom  were  some  who  were  in  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  imparted  a  touching  interest  to  the  scene.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Webster  was  stationed  upon  an  elevated  platform  in  front  of 
the  audience  and  of  the  monument  towering  in  the  background. 
According  to  Mr.  Frothingham's  estimate,  a  hundred  thousand 
persons  were  gathered  about  the  spot,  and  nearly  half  that  num 
ber  are  supposed  to  have  been  within  the  reach  of  the  orator's 
voice.  The  ground  rises  slightly  between  the  platform  and  the 
Monument  Square,  so  that  the  whole  of  this  immense  concourse 
—  compactly  crowded  together,  breathless  with  attention,  swayed 
by  one  sentiment  of  admiration  and  delight  —  was  within  the  full 
view  of  the  speaker.  The  position  and  the  occasion  were  the 
height  of  the  moral  sublime." 


THE   BUNKER    HILL    MONUMENT. 

AN    ADDRESS    DELIVERED    AT    THE    LAYING    OF    THE    CORNER 
STONE    OF    THE    BUNKER    HILL    MONUMENT    AT 
CHARLESTOWN,    MASS.,    ON    THE 
OF    JUNE,    1825. 


THIS  uncounted  multitude  before  me  and  around  me  proves 
the  feeling  which  the  occasion  has  excited.  These  thou 
sands  of  human  faces,  glowing  with  sympathy  and  joy,  and  from 
the  impulses  of  a  common  gratitude  turned  reverently  to  heaven 
in  this  spacious  temple  of  the  firmament,  proclaim  that  the  day, 
the  place,  and  the  purpose  of  our  assembling,  have  made  a  deep 
impression  on  our  hearts. 

If,  indeed,  there  be  anything  in  local  association  fit  to  affect 
the  mind  of  man,  we  need  not  strive  to  repress  the  emotions 
which  agitate  us  here.  We  are  among  the  sepulchers  of  our 
fathers.  We  are  on  ground  distinguished  by  their  valor,  their 
constancy,  and  the  shedding  of  their  blood.  We  are  here,  not 
to  fix  an  uncertain  date  in  our  annals,  nor  to  draw  into  notice  an 
obscure  and  unknown  spot.  If  our  humble  purpose  had  never 
been  conceived,  if  we  ourselves  had  never  been  born,  the  iyth 
of  June,  1775,  would  have  been  a  day  on  which  all  subsequent 
history  would  have  poured  its  light,  and  the  eminence  where  we 
stand,  a  point  of  attraction  to  the  eyes  of  successive  generations. 
But  we  are  Americans.  We  live  in  what  may  be  called  the  "  early 
age"  of  this  great  continent;  and  we  know  that  our  posterity, 
through  all  time,  are  here  to  enjoy  and  suffer  the  allotments  of 

19 


20  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

humanity-.  •  We  -^e^  before  us  a  probable  train  of  great  events  ; 
we  knowt  that  our  own  fortunes  have  been  happily  cast ;  and  it 
is  natural,  therefore,-  that  we  should  be  moved  by  the  contempla 
tion  of  occurrences  which  have  guided  our  destiny  before  many 
of  us  were  born,  and  settled  the  condition  in  which  we  should 
pass  that  portion  of  our  existence  which  God  allows  to  men  on 
earth. 

We  do  not  read  even  of  the  discovery  of  this  continent  with 
out  feeling  something  of  a  personal  interest  in  the  event,  without 
being  reminded  how  niuch  it  has  affected  our  own  fortunes  and 
our  own  existence.  It  would  be  still  more  unnatural  for  us,  there 
fore,  than  for  others,  to  contemplate  with  unaffected  minds  that 
interesting,  I  may  say  that  most  touching  and  pathetic  scene, 
when  the  great  discoverer  of  America  stood  on  the  deck  of  his 
shattered  bark,  the  shades  of  night  falling  on  the  sea,  yet  no  man 
sleeping ;  tossed  on  the  billows  of  an  unknown  ocean,  yet  the 
stronger  billows  of  alternate  hope  and  despair  tossing  his  own 
troubled  thoughts ;  extending  forward  his  harassed  frame,  strain 
ing  westward  his  anxious  and  eager  eyes,  till  Heaven  at  last 
granted  him  a  moment  of  rapture  and  ecstasy,  in  blessing  his 
vision  with  the  sight  of  the  unknown  world. 

Nearer  to  our  times,  more  closely  connected  with  our  fates, 
and  therefore  still  more  interesting  to  our  feelings  and  affections, 
is  the  settlement  of  our  own  country  by  colonists  from  England. 
We  cherish  every  memorial  of  these  worthy  ancestors ;  we  cele- 
brate  their  patience  and  fortitude ;  we  admire  their  daring  enter 
prise  ;  we  teach  our  children  to  venerate  their  piety ;  and  we  are 
justly  proud  of  being  descended  from  men  who  have  set  the 
world  an  example  of  founding  civil  institutions  on  the  great  and 
united  principles  of  human  freedom  and  human  knowledge.  To 
us  their  children,  the  story  of  their  labors  and  sufferings  can 
never  be  without  its  interest.  We  shall  not  stand  unmoved  on 
the  shores  of  Plymouth  while  the  sea  continues  to  wash  it ;  nor 
will  our  brethren  in  another  early  and  ancient  Colony  forget  the 
place  of  its  first  establishment  till  their  river  shall  cease  to  flow 


THE  BUNKER   HILL  MONUMENT.  21 

by  it.1  No  vigor  of  youth,  no  maturity  of  manhood,  will  lead 
the  nation  to  forget  the  spots  where  its  infancy  was  cradled  and 
defended. 

But  the  great  event  in  the  history  of  the  continent,  which  we 
are  now  met  here  to  commemorate,  that  prodigy  of  modern 
times,  at  once  the  wonder  and  the  blessing  of  the  world,  is  the 
American  Revolution.  In  a  day  of  extraordinary  prosperity  and 
happiness,  of  high  national  honor,  distinction,  and  power,  we  are 
brought  together  in  this  place  by  our  love  of  country,  by  our 
admiration  of  exalted  character,  by  our  gratitude  for  signal  ser 
vices  and  patriotic  devotion. 

The  Society  whose  organ  I  am  2  was  formed  for  the  purpose 
of  rearing  some  honorable  and  durable  monument  to  the  memory 
of  the  early  friends  of  American  independence.  They  have 
thought  that  for  this  object  no  time  could  be  more  propitious 
than  the  present  prosperous  and  peaceful  period,  that  no  place 
could  claim  preference  over  this  memorable  spot,  and  that  no 
day  could  be  more  auspicious  to  the  undertaking  than  the  anni 
versary  of  the  battle  which  was  here  fought.  The  foundation  of 
that  monument  we  have  now  laid.  With  solemnities  3  suited  to 
the  occasion,  with  prayers  to  Almighty  God  for  his  blessing,  and 
in  the  midst  of  this  cloud  of  witnesses,  we  have  begun  the  work. 

1  As  nearly  every  one  of  the  Colonies  was  founded  on  the  bank  of  a  river, 
it  is  not  clear  which  is  alluded  to  here.      Edward  Everett,  whose  edition  of 
the  orations  appeared  while  Webster  was  still  living,  mentions  the  settlement 
of  the  Maryland  Colony  on  the  St.  Mary's   River.      "The  'Ark'  and  the 
'  Dove,'  "  he  says,  "  are  remembered  with  scarcely  less  interest  by  the  de 
scendants  of  the  sister  Colony  than  is  the  '  Mayflower  '  in  New  England, 
which  thirteen  years  earlier,  at  the  same  season  of  the  year,  bore  thither  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers." 

2  Mr.  Webster  was  at  that  time  president  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument 
Association,  having  been  appointed  to  that  position  as  the  successor  of  Gov. 
John  Brooks,  the  first  president. 

3  Besides  the  laying  of  the  corner  stone  with  Masonic  ceremonies,  there 
was  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  Thaxter,  and  an  ode  was  read  by  the  Rev. 
John  Pierpont  of  Boston. 


22  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

We  trust  it  will  be  prosecuted,  and  that,  springing  from  a  broad 
foundation,  rising  high  in  massive  solidity  and  unadorned 
grandeur,  it  may  remain  as  long  as  Heaven  permits  the  works 
of  man  to  last,  a  fit  emblem,  both  of  the  events  in  memory  of 
which  it  is  raised,  and  of  the  gratitude  of  those  who  have  reared  it. 
We  know,  indeed,  that  the  record  of  illustrious  actions  is  most 
safely  deposited  in  the  universal  remembrance  of  mankind.  We 
know  that  if  we  could  cause  this  structure  to  ascend,  not  only 
till  it  reached  the  skies,  but  till  it  pierced  them,  its  broad  surfaces 
could  still  contain  but  part  of  that  which,  in  an  age  of  knowl 
edge,  hath  already  been  spread  over  the  earth,  and  which  history 
charges  itself  with  making  known  to  all  future  times.  We  know 
that  no  inscription  on  entablatures  less  broad  than  the  earth  it 
self  can  carry  information  of  the  events  we  commemorate  where 
it  has  not  already  gone ;  and  that  no  structure  which  shall  not 
outlive  the  duration  of  letters  and  knowledge  among  men  can 
prolong  the  memorial.  But  our  object  is,  by  this  edifice,  to  show 
our  own  deep  sense  of  the  value  and  importance  of  the  achieve 
ments  of  our  ancestors,  and,  by  presenting  this  work  of  gratitude 
to  the  eye,  to  keep  alive  similar  sentiments,  and  to  foster  a  con 
stant  regard  for  the  principles  of  the  Revolution.  Human  be 
ings  are  composed  not  of  reason  only,  but  of  imagination  also, 
and  sentiment ;  and  that  is  neither  wasted  nor  misapplied  which 
is  appropriated  to  the  purpose  of  giving  right  direction  to  senti 
ments,  and  opening  proper  springs  of  feeling  in  the  heart.  Let 
it  not  be  supposed  that  our  object  is  to  perpetuate  national  hos 
tility,  or  even  to  cherish  a  mere  military  spirit.  It  is  higher, 
purer,  nobler.  We  consecrate  our  work  to  the  spirit  of  national 
independence,  and  we  wish  that  the  light  of  peace  may  rest 
upon  it  forever.  We  rear  a  memorial  of  our  conviction  of 
that  unmeasured  benefit  which  has  been  conferred  on  our  own 
land,  and  of  the  happy  influences  which  have  been  produced,  by 
the  same  events,  on  the  general  interests  of  mankind.  \We  come, 
as  Americans,  to  mark  a  spot  which  must  forever  be  dear  to  us 
and  our  posterity.  We  wish  that  whosoever,  in  all  coming  time, 


THE  BUNKER  HILL   MONUMENT.  23 

shall  turn  his  eye  hither  may  behold  that  the  place  is  not  undis 
tinguished  where  the  first  great  battle  of  the  Revolution  was 
fought.  We  wish  that  this  structure  may  proclaim  the  magni 
tude  and  importance  of  that  event  to  every  class  and  every  age. 
We  wish  that  infancy  may  learn  the  purpose  of  its  erection  from 
maternal  lips,  and  that  weary  and  withered  age  may  behold  it, 
and  be  solaced  by  the  recollections  which  it  suggests.  We  wish 
that  labor  may  look  up  here,  and  be  proud  in  the  midst  of  its 
toil.  We  wish  that  in  those  days  of  disaster,  which,  as  they 
come  upon  all  nations,  must  be  expected  to  come  upon  us  also, 
desponding  patriotism  may  turn  its  eyes  hitherward,  and  be  as 
sured  that  the  foundations  of  our  national  power  are  still  strong. 
We  wish  that  this  column,  rising  towards  heaven  among  the 
pointed  spires  of  so  many  temples  dedicated  to  God,  may  contrib 
ute  also  to  produce  in  all  minds  a  pious  feeling  of  dependence 
and  gratitude.  We  wish,  finally,  that  the  last  object  to  the  sight 
of  him  who  leaves  his  native  shore,  and  the  first  to  gladden  his 
who  revisits  it,  may  be  something  which  shall  remind  him  of  the 
liberty  and  the  glory  of  his  country.  Let  it  rise !  let  it  rise  till 
it  meet  the  sun  in  his  coming ;  let  the  earliest  light  of  the  morn 
ing  gild  it,  and  parting  day  linger  and  play  on  its  summit. 

We  live  in  a  most  extraordinary  age.  Events  so  various  and 
so  important  that  they  might  crowd  and  distinguish  centuries, 
are  in  our  times  compressed  within  the  compass  of  a  single  life. 
When  has  it  happened  that  history  has  had  so  much  to  record, 
in  the  same  term  of  years,  as  since  the  iyth  of  June,  1775  ? 
Our  own  Revolution,  which,  under  other  circumstances,  might 
itself  have  been  expected  to  occasion  a  war  of  half  a  century, 
has  been  achieved,  twenty-four  sovereign  and  independent  States 
erected,  and  a  general  government  established  over  them,  so  safe, 
so  wise,  so  free,  so  practical,  that  we  might  well  wonder  its  estab 
lishment  should  have  been  accomplished  so  soon,  were  it  not  far 
the  greater  wonder  that  it  should  have  been  established  at  all. 
Two  or  three  millions  of  people  have  been  augmented  to  twelve, 


24  DANIEL    WEBSTER, 

the  great  forests  of  the  West  prostrated  beneath  the  arm  of  suc 
cessful  industry,  and  the  dwellers  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and 
the  Mississippi  become  the  fellow  citizens  and  neighbors  of  those 
who  cultivate  the  hills  of  New  England.1  We  have  a  commerce 
that  leaves  no  sea  unexplored,  navies  which  take  no  law  from 
superior  force,  revenues  adequate  to  all  the  exigencies  of  gov 
ernment,  almost  without  taxation,  and  peace  with  all  nations, 
founded  on  equal  rights  and  mutual  respect. 

Europe,  within  the  same  period,  has  been  agitated  by  a  mighty 
revolution  2  which,  while  it  has  been  felt  in  the  individual  condi 
tion  and  happiness  of  almost  every  man,  has  shaken  to  the  cen 
ter  her  political  fabric,  and  dashed  against  one  another  thrones 
which  had  stood  tranquil  for  ages.  On  this  our  continent,  our 
own  example  has  been  followed,  and  colonies  have  sprung  up  to 
be  nations.  Unaccustomed  sounds  of  liberty  and  free  govern 
ment  have  reached  us  from  beyond  the  track  of  the  sun  ;  3  and  at 
this  moment  the  dominion  of  European  power  in  this  continent,4 
from  the  place  where  we  stand  to  the  south  pole,  is  annihilated 
forever. 

In  the  mean  time,  both  in  Europe  and  America,  such  has  been 
the  general  progress  of  knowledge,  such  the  improvement  in  leg 
islation,  in  commerce,  in  the  arts,  in  letters,  and,  above  all,  in 
liberal  ideas  and  the  general  spirit  of  the  age,  that  the  whole 
world  seems  changed. 

1  This  has  been  more  than  realized  by  the  introduction  of  railroads,  mak 
ing  the  people  even  of  the  Pacific  coast  neighbors  of  the  people  of  New  Eng 
land.      Edward  Everett  mentions  as  an  interesting  circumstance,  the  fact  that 
the  first  railroad  on  the  Western  continent  was  built  for  the  purpose  of  aiding 
in  the  erection  of  this  monument.      It  was  a  horse  railroad  from  Quincy  to 
Boston,  and  was  used  for  transporting  the  blocks  of  granite  from  the  quarries. 

2  The  French  Revolution  and  the  wars  resulting  from  it. 

3  The  allusion  is  to  the  then  recent  establishment  of  republican  govern 
ments  in  South  America. 

4  The  Monroe  Doctrine,  enunciated  by  President  Monroe  in  his  message 
to  Congress  in   1823,   was  virtually  a  declaration  that  no  European  power 
should  be  permitted  to  secure  further  dominion  on  the  American  continent. 


THE  BUNKER  HILL   MONUMENT,  25 

Yet,  notwithstanding  that  this  is  but  a  faint  abstract  of  the 
things  which  have  happened  since  the  day  of  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill,  we  are  but  fifty  years  removed  from  it ;  and  we 
now  stand  here  to  enjoy  all  the  blessings  of  our  own  condition, 
and  to  look  abroad  on  the  brightened  prospects  of  the  world, 
while  we  still  have  among  us  some  of  those  who  were  active 
agents  in  the  scenes  of  1775,  and  who  are  now  here,  from  every 
quarter  of  New  England,1  to  visit  once  more,  and  under  circum 
stances  so  affecting,  —  I  had  almost  said  so  overwhelming,  —  this 
renowned  theater  of  their  courage  and  patriotism. 

VENERABLE  MEN,  you  have  come  down  to  us  from  a  former 
generation.  Heaven  has  bounteously  lengthened  out  your  lives, 
that  you  might  behold  this  joyous  day.  You  are  now  where  you 
stood  fifty  years  ago  this  very  hour,  with  your  brothers  and  your 
neighbors,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  the  strife  for  your  country. 
Behold,  how  altered!  The  same  heavens  are  indeed  over  your 
heads ;  the  same  ocean  rolls  at  your  feet :  but  all  else  how 
changed  !  You  hear  now  no  roar  of  hostile  cannon,  you  see  no 
mixed  volumes  of  smoke  and  flame  rising  from  burning  Charles- 
town.  The  ground  strewed  with  the  dead  and  the  dying ;  the 
impetuous  charge ;  the  steady  and  successful  repulse ;  the  loud 
call  to  repeated  assault ;  the  summoning  of  all  that  is  manly  to 
repeated  resistance  ;  a  thousand  bosoms  freely  and  fearlessly  bared 
in  an  instant  to  whatever  of  terror  there  may  be  in  war  and  death, 

—  all  these  you  have  witnessed,  but  you  witness  them  no  more.    All 
is  peace.     The  heights  of  yonder  metropolis,2  its  towers  and  roofs, 

—  which  you  then  saw  filled  with  wives  and  children  and  country 
men  in  distress  and  terror,  and  looking  with  unutterable  emotions 
for  the  issue  of  the  combat, — have  presented  you  to-day  with  the 
sight  of  its  whole  happy  population  come  out  to  welcome  and 
greet  you  with  a  universal  jubilee.     Yonder  proud  ships,  by  a 

1  There  were  nearly  two  hundred  of  them,  forty  of  whom  had  been  in  the 
battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

2  Boston. 


26        ,  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

felicity  of  position  appropriately  lying  at  the  foot  of  this  mount/ 
and  seeming  fondly  to  cling  around  it,  are  not  means  of  annoy 
ance  to  you,  but  your  country's  own  means  of  distinction  and 
defense.  All  is  peace ;  and  God  has  granted  you  this  sight  of 
your  country's  happiness  ere  you  slumber  in  the  grave.  He  has 
allowed  you  to  behold  and  to  partake  the  reward  of  your  pa 
triotic  toils ;  and  he  nas  allowed  us,  your  sons  and  countrymen, 
to  meet  you  here,  and  in  the  name  of  the  present  generation,  in 
the  name  of  your  country,  in  the  name  of  liberty,  to  thank  you. 

But,  alas  !  you  are  not  all  here.  Time  and  the  sword  have 
thinned  your  ranks.  Prescott,  Putnam,  Stark,  Brooks,  Read, 
Pomeroy,  Bridge,  —  our  eyes  seek  for  you  in  vain  amid  this  broken 
band.  You  are  gathered  to  your  fathers,  and  live  only  to  your 
country  in  her  grateful  remembrance  and  your  own  bright  exam 
ple.  But  let  us  not  too  much  grieve  that  you  have  met  the 
common  fate  of  men.  You  lived  at  least  long  enough  to  know 
that  your  work  had  been  nobly  and  successfully  accomplished. 
You  lived  to  see  your  country's  independence  established,  and 
to  sheathe  your  swords  from  war.  On  the  light  of  Liberty  you 
saw  arise  the  light  of  Peace,  like 

"  Another  morn, 
Risen  on  mid  noon  ;  "  2 

and  the  sky  on  which  you  closed  your  eyes  was  cloudless. 

But  ah  !  him,  the  first  great  martyr 3  in  this  great  cause'; 
him,  the  premature  victim  of  his  own  self-devoting  heart ; 
him,  the  head  of  our  civil  councils  and  the  destined  leader  of 
our  military  bands,  whom  nothing  brought  hither  but  the  un 
quenchable  fire  of  his  own  spirit ;  him,  cut  off  by  Providence 

1  The  United  States  Navy  Yard  at  Charlestown  is  situated  at  the  base  of 
Bunker  Hill. 

2  Paradise  Lost,  v.  310. 

3  Gen.  Joseph  Warren,   born  in   1741,    was   a  man  of  fine  culture  and 
unusual  promise.     He  had  been  elected  president  of  the  Provincial  Congress, 
and  was  one  of  the  most  ardent  patriots  of  the  time. 


THE   BUNKER   HILL  MONUMENT.  27 

in  the  hour  of  overwhelming  anxiety  and  thick  gloom,  falling 
ere  he  saw  the  star  of  his  country  rise,  pouring  out  his  generous 
blood  like  water  before  he  knew  whether  it  would  fertilize  a  land 
of  freedom  or  of  bondage,  —  how  shall  I  struggle  with  the  emo 
tions  that  stifle  the  utterance  of  thy  name  !  Our  poor  work 
may  perish ;  but  thine  shall  endure.  This  monument  may 
molder  away ;  the  solid  ground  it  rests  upon  may  sink  down  to 
a  level  with  the  sea :  but  thy  memory  shall  not  fail.  Whereso 
ever  among  men  a  heart  shall  be  found  that  beats  to  the  trans 
ports  of  patriotism  and  liberty,  its  aspirations  shall  be  to  claim 
kindred  with  thy  spirit. 

But  the  scene  amidst  which  we  stand  does  not  permit  us  to 
confine  our  thoughts  or  our  sympathies  to  those  fearless  spirits 
who  hazarded  or  lost  their  lives  on  this  consecrated  spot.  We 
have  the  happiness  to  rejoice  here  in  the  presence  of  a  most 
worthy  representation  of  the  survivors  of  the  whole  Revolutionary 
army. 

VETERANS,  you  are  the  remnant  of  many  a  well-fought  field. 
You  bring  with  you  marks  of  honor  from  Trenton  and  Monmouth, 
from  Yorktown,  Camden,  Bennington,  and  Saratoga.  VETERANS 
OF  HALF  A  CENTURY,  when  in  your  youthful  days  you  put  every 
thing  at  hazard  in  your  country's  cause,  —  good  as  that  cause  was, 
and  sanguine  as  youth  is,  —  still  your  fondest  hopes  did  not  stretch 
onward  to  an  hour  like  this.  At  a  period  to  which  you  could 
not  reasonably  have  expected  to  arrive,  at  a  moment  of  national 
prosperity  such  as  you  could  never  have  foreseen,  you  are  now 
met  here  to  enjoy  the  fellowship  of  old  soldiers,  and  to  receive 
the  overflowings  of  a  universal  gratitude. 

But  your  agitated  countenances  and  your  heaving  breasts  in 
form  me  that  even  this  is  not  an  unmixed  joy.  I  perceive  that 
a  tumult  of  contending  feelings  rushes  upon  you.  The  images 
of  the  dead,  as  well  as  the  persons  of  the  living,  present  them 
selves  before  you.  The  scene  overwhelms  you,  and  I  turn  from 
it.  May  the  Father  of  all  mercies  smile  upon  your  declining 
years,  and  bless  them  !  And  when  you  shall  here  have  ex- 


28  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

changed  your  embraces,  when  you  shall  once  more  have  pressed 
the  hands  which  have  been  so  often  extended  to  give  succor  in 
adversity,  or  grasped  in  the  exultation  of  victory,  then  look  abroad 
upon  this  lovely  land  which  your  young  valor  defended,  and 
mark  the  happiness  with  which  it  is  filled  ;  yea,  look  abroad  upon 
the  whole  earth,  and  see  what  a  name  you  have  contributed  to 
give  to  your  country,  and  what  a  praise  you  have  added  to  free 
dom,  and  then  rejoice  in  the  sympathy  and  gratitude  which  beam 
upon  your  last  days  from  the  improved  condition  of  mankind  ! 

The  occasion  does  not  require  of  me  any  particular  account  of 
the  battle  of  the  iyth  of  June,  1775,  nor  any  detailed  narrative 
of  the  events  which  immediately  preceded  it.  These  are  famil 
iarly  known  to  all.  In  the  progress  of  the  great  and  interesting 
controversy,  Massachusetts  and  the  town  of  Boston  had  become 
early  and  marked  objects  of  the  displeasure  of  the  British  Parlia 
ment.  This  had  been  manifested  in  the  act  for  altering  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  Province,  and  in  that  for  shutting  up  the  port  of 
Boston.1  Nothing  sheds  more  honor  on  our  early  history,  and 
nothing  better  shows  how  little  the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  the 
Colonies  were  known  or  regarded  in  England,  than  the  impres 
sion  which  these  measures  everywhere  produced  in  America.  It 
had  been  anticipated  that,  while  the  Colonies  in  general  would 
be  terrified  by  the  severity  of  the  punishment  inflicted  on  Mas 
sachusetts,  the  other  seaports  would  be  governed  by  a  mere  spirit 
of  gain  ;  and  that,  as  Boston  was  now  cut  off  from  all  commerce, 
the  unexpected  advantage  which  this  blow  on  her  was  calculated 
to  confer  on  other  towns  would  be  greedily  enjoyed.  How  mis 
erably  such  reasoners  deceived  themselves  !  How  little  they 
knew  of  the  depth  and  the  strength  and  the  intenseness  of  that 
feeling  of  resistance  to  illegal  acts  of  power  which  possessed  the 
whole  American  people  !  Everywhere  the  unworthy  boon  was 

1  The  Boston  Port  Bill,  passed  by  the  British  Parliament  in  1774,  declared 
that  port  to  be  closed,  and  transferred  the  seat  of  colonial  government  to 
Salem.  •••'•• 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  29 

rejected  with  scorn.  The  fortunate  occasion  was  seized  every 
where,  to  show  to  the  whole  world  that  the  Colonies  were  swayed 
by  no  local  interest,  no  partial  interest,  no  selfish  interest.  The 
temptation  to  profit  by  the  punishment  of  Boston  was  strongest 
to  our  neighbors  of  Salem.  Yet  Salem  was  precisely  the  place 
where  this  miserable  proffer  was  spurned  in  a  tone  of  the  most 
lofty  self-respect  and  the  most  indignant  patriotism.  "  We  are 
deeply  affected,"  said  its  inhabitants,  "  with  the  sense  of  our  pub 
lic  calamities ;  but  the  miseries  that  are  now  rapidly  hastening 
on  our  brethren  in  the  capital  of  the  Province  greatly  excite  our 
commiseration.  By  shutting  up  the  port  of  Boston,  some  imagine 
that  the  course  of  trade  might  be  turned  hither  and  to  our  bene 
fit  ;  but  we  must  be  dead  to  every  idea  of  justice,  lost  to  all  feel 
ings  of  humanity,  could  we  indulge  a  thought  to  seize  on  wealth, 
and  raise  our  fortunes,  on  the  ruin  of  our  suffering  neighbors." 
These  noble  sentiments  were  not  confined  to  our  immediate  vi 
cinity.  In  that  day  of  general  affection  and  brotherhood,  the 
blow  given  to  Boston  smote  on  every  patriotic  heart  from  one 
end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  as 
well  as  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire,  felt  and  proclaimed 
the  cause  to  be  their  own.  The  Continental  Congress,  then 
holding  its  first  session  in  Philadelphia,  expressed  its  sympathy 
for  the  suffering  inhabitants  of  Boston ;  and  addresses  were 
received  from  all  quarters  assuring  them  that  the  cause  was  a 
common  one,  and  should  be  met  by  common  efforts  and  com 
mon  sacrifices.  The  Congress  of  Massachusetts  responded  to 
these  assurances ;  and  in  an  address  to  the  Congress  at  Philadel 
phia,  bearing  the  official  signature  (perhaps  among  the  last)  of 
the  immortal  Warren,  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  its  suffer 
ing  and  the  magnitude  of  the  dangers  which  threatened  it,  it  was 
declared  that  this  Colony  "  is  ready  at  all  times  to  spend  and  to 
be  spent  in  the  cause  of  America." 

But  the  hour  drew  nigh  which  was  to  put  professions  to  the 
proof,  and  to  determine  whether  the  authors  of  these  mutual 
pledgesr  were  ready  to  seal  them  in  blood.  The.  tidings  of  Lex- 


3°  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

ington  and  Concord  had .  no  sooner  spread  than  it  was  univer 
sally  felt  that  the  time  was  at  last  come  for  action.  A  spirit  per 
vaded  all  ranks,  not  transient,  not  boisterous,  but  deep,  solemn, 
determined, 

"  Totamque  infusa  per  artus 
Mens  agitat  molem,  et  magno  se  corpore  miscet."1 

War  on  their  own  soil  and  at  their  own  doors  was,  indeed,  a 
strange  work  to  the  yeomanry  of  New  England ;  but  their  con 
sciences  were  convinced  of  its  necessity,  their  country  called  them 
to  it,  and  they  did  not  withhold  themselves  from  the  perilous  trial. 
The  ordinary  occupations  of  life  were  abandoned ;  the  plow  was 
stayed  in  the  unfinished  furrow ;  wives  gave  up  their  husbands, 
and  mothers  gave  up  their  sons,  to  the  battles  of  a  civil  war. 
Death  might  come,  in  honor,  on  the  field ;  it  might  come,  in 
disgrace,  on  the  scaffold :  for  either  and  for  both  they  were  pre 
pared.  The  sentiment  of  Quincy2  was  full  in  their  hearts. 
"  Blandishments,"  said  that  distinguished  son  of  genius  and  pa 
triotism,  "  will  not  fascinate  us,  nor  will  threats  of  a  halter  intim 
idate  ;  for,  under  God,  we  are  determined  that  wheresoever, 
whensoever,  or  howsoever  we  shall  be  called  to  make  our  exit, 
we  will  die  free  men." 

The  i yth  of  June  saw  the  four  New-England  Colonies3  stand 
ing  here  side  by  side  to  triumph  or  to  fall  together;  and  there 
was  with  them,  from  that  moment  to  the  end  of  the  war,  what  I 
hope  will  remain  with  them  forever,  one  cause,  one  country,  one 
heart. 

The  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  attended  with  the  most  impor- 

1  ^Eneid,  Lib.  VI.  725,  William  Morris's  translation :  — 

"  One  soul  is  shed  through  all, 
That  quickeneth  all  the  mass,  and  with  the  mighty  thing  is  blent." 

2  Josiah  Quincy,  Jr.  (born  in  1744;  died  at  sea,  1775),  was  one  of  the 
most  energetic  opponents  of  British  usurpation,  and  with  Warren  and  James 
Otis  exerted  an  early  and  very  great  influence  in  favor  of  the  freedom  of  the 
American  Colonies. 

3  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut. 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  31 

tant  effects  beyond  its  immediate  results  as  a  military  engage 
ment.  It  created  at  once  a  state  of  open,  public  war.  There 
could  now  be  no  longer  a  question  of  proceeding  against  indi 
viduals  as  guilty  of  treason  or  rebellion.  That  fearful  crisis  was 
past.  The  appeal  lay  to  the  sword ;  and  the  only  question  was, 
whether  the  spirit  and  the  resources  of  the  people  would  hold 
out  till  the  object  should  be  accomplished.  Nor  were  its  gen 
eral  consequences  confined  to  our  own  country.  The  previous 
proceedings  of  the  Colonies,  their  appeals,  resolutions,  and  ad 
dresses,  had  made  their  cause  known  to  Europe.  Without  boast 
ing,  we  may  say  that  in  no  age  or  country  has  the  public  cause 
been  maintained  with  more  force  of  argument,  more  power  of 
illustration,  or  more  of  that  persuasion  which  excited  feeling  and 
elevated  principle  can  alone  bestow,  than  the  Revolutionary  state 
papers  exhibit.  These  papers  will  forever  deserve  to  be  studied, 
not  only  for  the  spirit  which  they  breathe,  but  for  the  ability  with 
which  they  were  written. 

To  this  able  vindication  of  their  cause,  the  Colonies  had  now 
added  a  practical  and  severe  proof  of  their  own  true  devotion  to 
it,  and  given  evidence  also  of  the  power  which  they  could  bring 
to  its  support.  All  now  saw  that,  if  America  fell,  she  would  not 
fall  without  a  struggle.  Men  felt  sympathy  and  regard,  as  well 
as  surprise,  when  they  beheld  these  infant  states,  remote,  un 
known,  unaided,  encounter  the  power  of  England,  and,  in  the 
first  considerable  battle,  leave  more  of  their  enemies  dead  on  the 
field,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  combatants,1  than  had  been 
recently  known  to  fall  in  the  wars  of  Europe. 

Information  of  these  events,  circulating  throughout  the  world, 
at  length  reached  the  ears  of  one  who  now  hears  me.2  He  has 

1  There  were  engaged  in  the  battle  about  1, 500  Americans  and  2, 500  British. 
The  losses  of  the  Americans  were  115  killed,  305  wounded,  30  captured :  total 
450.     The  British  lost  206  killed,  828  wounded:  total  1,054. 

2  "  Among  the  earliest  of  the  arrangements  for  the  celebration  of  the  ijih 
of  June,  1825,  was  the  invitation  to  Gen.  Lafayette  to  be  present;  and  he 
had  so  timed  his  progress  through  the  other  States  as  to  return  to  Massachu 
setts  in  season  for  the  great  occasion."  —  EVERETT. 


32  DANIEL  WEBSTER. 

not  forgotten  the  emotion  which  the  fame  of  Bunker  Hill  and 
the  name  of  Warren  excited  in  his  youthful  breast. 

SIR,  we  are  assembled  to  commemorate  the  establishment  of 
great  public  principles  of  liberty,  and  to  do  honor  to  the  distin 
guished  dead.  The  occasion  is  too  severe  for  eulogy  of  the  liv 
ing.  But,  sir,  your  interesting  relation  to  this  country,  the  pecul 
iar  circumstances  which  surround  you  and  surround  us,  call  on 
me  to  express  the  happiness  which  we  derive  from  your  presence 
and  aid  in  this  solemn  commemoration. 

Fortunate,  fortunate  man  ! — with  what  measure  of  devotion 
will  you  not  thank  God  for  the  circumstances  of  your  extraordi 
nary  life  !  You  are  connected  with  both  hemispheres  and  with 
two  generations.  Heaven  saw  fit  to  ordain  that  the  electric 
spark  of  liberty  should  be  conducted,  through  you,  from  the 
New  World  to  the  Old ;  and  we  who  are  now  here  to  perform 
this  duty  of  patriotism  have  all  of  us  long  ago  received  it  in 
charge  from  our  fathers  to  cherish  your  name  and  your  virtues. 
You  will  account  it  an  instance  of  your  good  fortune,  sir,  that 
you  crossed  the  seas  to  visit  us  at  a  time  which  enables  you  to  be 
present  at  this  solemnity.1  You  now  behold  the  field  the  renown 
of  which  reached  you  in  the  heart  of  France,  and  caused  a  thrill 
in  your  ardent  bosom.  You  see  the  lines  of  the  little  redoubt 
thrown  up  by  the  incredible  diligence  of  Prescott,  defended  to 
the  last  extremity  by  his  lion-hearted  valor,  and  within  which 
the  corner  stone  of  our  monument  has  now  taken  its  position. 
You  see  where  Warren  fell,  and  where  Parker,  Gardner,  Mc- 
Cleary,  Moore,  and  other  early  patriots  fell  with  him.  Those 
who  survived  that  day,  and  whose  lives  have  been  prolonged  to 
the  present  hour,  are  now  around  you.  Some  of  them  you  have 
known  in  the  trying  scenes  of  the  war.  Behold  !  they  now 

1  Gen.  Lafayette  made  a  tour  of  the  United  States  as  the  "nation's 
guest  "  in  1824-25.  His  name  stood  at  the  head  of  the  subscriptions  for 
the  Bunker  Hill  Monument;  and  he  wrote,  •"  In  all  my  travels  through  the 
country,  I  have  made  Bunker  Hill  my  polestar." 


THE  BUNKER   HILL   MONUMENT.  33 

stretch  forth  their  feeble  arms  to  embrace  you.  Behold  !  they 
raise  their  trembling  voices  to  invoke  the  blessing  of  God  on  you 
and  yours  forever. 

Sir,  you  have  assisted  us  in  laying  the  foundation  of  this  struc 
ture.  You  have  heard  us  rehears.e,  with  our  feeble  commenda 
tion,  the  names  of  departed  patriots.  Monuments  and  eulogy 
belong  to  the  dead.1  We  give  them  this  day  to  Warren  and  his 
associates.  On  other  occasions  they  have  been  given  to  your 
more  immediate  companions  in  arms,  to  Washington,  to  Greene, 
to  Gates,  to  Sullivan,  and  to  Lincoln.  We  have  become  reluc 
tant  to  grant  these,  our  highest  and  last  honors,  further.  We 
would  gladly  hold  them  yet  back  from  the  little  remnant  of  that 
immortal  band.  Serus  in  cesium  redacts?  Illustrious  as  are  your 
merits,  yet  far,  oh,  very  far  distant  be  the  day  3  when  any  inscrip 
tion  shall  bear  your  name,  or  any  tongue  pronounce  its  eulogy  ! 

The  leading  reflection  to  which  this  occasion  seems  to  invite 
us  respects  the  great  changes  which  have  happened  in  the  fifty 
years  since  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  fought.  And  it  pecul 
iarly  marks  the  character  of  the  present  age,  that,  in  looking  at 
these  changes  and  in  estimating  their  effect  on  our  condition,  we 
are  obliged  to  consider,  not  what  has  been  done  in  our  own  country 
only,  but  in  others  also.  In  these  interesting  times,  while  nations 
are  making  separate  and  individual  advances  in  improvement, 
they  make,  too,  a  common  progress,  like  vessels  on  a  common 
tide,  propelled  by  the  gales  at  different  rates,  according  to  their 
several  structure  and  management,  but  all  moved  forward  by  one 
mighty  current,  strong  enough  to  bear  onward  whatever  does  not 
sink  beneath  it. 

1  "  The  thrilling  eloquence  of  the  address  to  the  old  soldiers  of  Bunker 
Hill,  and  of  the  apostrophe  to  Warren,  and  the  superb  reservation  of  eulogy 
with  which  he  spoke  of  and  to  Gen.    Lafayette,   were  perhaps  unequaled, 
surely  never  surpassed,    by  Webster  on  any  other  occasion." — - 

Life  of  Webster,  ii.  p.  252. 

2  "  Late  into  heaven  may  you  return."  —  HORACE,  I.  ii-  45- 

3  Lafayette  died  May  20,  1834. 


34  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

A  chief  distinction  of  the  present  day  is  a  community  of  opin 
ions  and  knowledge  amongst  men  in  different  nations,  existing  in 
a  degree  heretofore  unknown.  Knowledge  has  in  our  time 
triumphed,  and  is  triumphing,  over  distance,  over  difference  of 
languages,  over  diversity  of  habits,  over  prejudice,  and  over 
bigotry.  The  civilized  and  Christian  world  is  fast  learning  the 
great  lesson,  that  difference  of  nation  does  not  imply  necessary 
hostility,  and  that  all  contact  need  not  be  war.  The  whole  world 
is  becoming  a  common  field  for  intellect  to  act  in.  Energy  of 
mind,  genius,  power,  wheresoever  it  exists,  M'.ay  speak  out  in 
any  tongue,  and  the  world  will  hear  it.  A  great  chord  of  senti 
ment  and  feeling  runs  through  two  continents,  and  vibrates  over 
both.  Every  breeze  wafts  intelligence  from  country  to  country ; 
every  wave  rolls  it ;  all  give  it  forth,  and  all  in  turn  receive  it. 
There  is  a  vast  commerce  of  ideas ;  there  are  marts  and  ex 
changes  for  intellectual  discoveries,  and  a  wonderful  fellowship 
of  those  individual  intelligences  which  make  up  the  mind  and 
opinion  of  the  age.  Mind  is  the  great  lever  of  all  things ;  hu 
man  thought  is  the  process  by  which  human  ends  are  ultimately 
answered ;  and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  so  astonishing  in  the 
last  half  century,  has  rendered  innumerable  minds,  variously 
gifted  by  nature,  competent  to  be  competitors  or  fellow  workers 
on  the  theater  of  intellectual  operation. 

From  these  causes,  important  improvements  have  taken  place 
in  the  personal  condition  of  individuals.  Generally  speaking, 
mankind  are  not  only  better  fed  and  better  clothed,  but  they  are 
able  also  to  enjoy  more  leisure ;  they  possess  more  refinement 
and  more  self-respect.  A  superior  tone  of  education,  manners, 
and  habits,  prevails.  This  remark,  most  true  in  its  application  to 
our  own  country,  is  also  partly  true  when  applied  elsewhere.  It 
is  proved  by  the  vastly  augmented  consumption  of  those  articles 
of  manufacture  and  of  commerce  which  contribute  to  the  com 
forts  and  the  decencies  of  life,  —  an  augmentation  which  has  far 
outrun  the  progress  of  population.  And  while  the  unexampled 
and  almost  incredible  use  of  machinery  would  seem  to  supply  the 


THE  BUNKER  HILL  MONUMENT.  35 

place  of  labor,  labor  still  finds  its  occupation  and  its  reward,  so 
wisely  has  Providence  adjusted  men's  wants  and  desires  to  their 
condition  and  their  capacity. 

Any  adequate  survey,  however,  of  the  progress  made  during 
the  last  half  century  in  the  polite  and  the  mechanic  arts,  in  ma 
chinery  and  manufactures,  in  commerce  and  agriculture,  in  letters 
and  in  science,  would  require  volumes.  I  must  abstain  wholly 
from  these  subjects,  and  turn  for  a  moment  to  the  contemplation 
of  what  has  been  done  on  the  great  question  of  politics  and  gov 
ernment.  This  is  the  master  topic  of  the  age,  and  during  the 
whole  fifty  years  it  has  intensely  occupied  the  thoughts  of  men. 
The  nature  of  civil  government,  its  ends  and  uses,  have  been 
canvassed  and  investigated,  ancient  opinions  attacked  and  de 
fended,  new  ideas  recommended  and  resisted,  by  whatever  power 
the  mind  of  man  could  bring  to  the  controversy.  From  the  closet 
and  the  public  halls,  the  debate  has  been  transferred  to  the  field  ; 
and  the  world  has  been  shaken  by  wars  of  unexampled  magni 
tude  and  the  greatest  variety  of  fortune.  A  day  of  peace  has 
at  length  succeeded ;  and,  now  that  the  strife  has  subsided  and 
the  smoke  cleared  away,  we  may  begin  to  see  what  has  actually 
been  done  permanently  changing  the  state  and  condition  of  hu 
man  society.  And,  without  dwelling  on  particular  circumstances, 
it  is  most  apparent,  that,  from  the  before-mentioned  causes  of 
augmented  knowledge  and  improved  individual  condition,  a  real, 
substantial,  and  important  change  has  taken  place,  and  is  taking 
place,  highly  favorable,  on  the  whole,  to  human  liberty  and 
human  happiness. 

The  great  wheel  of  political  revolution  began  to  move  in  Ameri 
ca.  Here  its  rotation  was  guarded,  regular,  and  safe.  Transferred 
to  the  other  continent,  from  unfortunate  but  natural  causes,  it 
received  an  irregular  and  violent  impulse ;  it  whirled  along  with  a 
fearful  celerity,  till  at  length,  like  the  chariot  wheels  in  the  races 
of  antiquity,  it  took  fire  from  the  rapidity  of  its  own  motion,  and 
blazed  onward,  spreading  conflagration  and  terror  around.1 
1  Alluding  to  the  French  Revolution  (1793)  anc*  fte  Reign  of  Terror. 


36  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

We  learn  from  the  result  of  this  experiment  how  fortunate  was 
our  own  condition,  and  how  admirably  the  character  of  our 
people  was  calculated  for  setting  the  great  example  of  popular 
governments.  The  possession  of  power  did  not  turn  the  heads 
of  the  American  people,  for  they  had  long  been  in  the  habit  ot 
exercising  a  great  degree  of  self-control.  Although  the  para 
mount  authority  of  the  parent  state  existed  over  them,  yet  a  large 
field  of  legislation  had  always  been  open  to  our  colonial  assemblies. 
They  were  accustomed  to  representative  bodies  and  the  forms  of 
free  government ;  they  understood,  the  doctrine  of  the  division  of 
power  among  different  branches,  and  the  necessity  of  checks  on 
each.  The  character  of  our  countrymen,  moreover,  was  sober, 
moral,  and  religious,  and  there  was  little  in  the  change  to  shock 
their  feelings  of  justice  and  humanity,  or  even  to  disturb  an  hon 
est  prejudice.  We  had  no  domestic  throne  to  overturn,  no  privi 
leged  orders  to  cast  down,  no  violent  changes  of  property  to  en 
counter.  In  the  American  Revolution,  no  man  sought  or  wished 
for  more  than  to  defend  and  enjoy  his  own.  None  hoped  for 
plunder  or  for  spoil.  Rapacity  was  unknown  to  it ;  the  ax  was 
not  among  the  instruments  of  its  accomplishment ;  and  we  all 
know  that  it  could  not  have  lived  a  single  day  under  any  well- 
founded  imputation  of  possessing  a  tendency  adverse  to  the 
Christian  religion. 

It  need  not  surprise  us,  that,  under  circumstances  less  auspi 
cious,  political  revolutions  elsewhere,  even  when  well  intended, 
have  terminated  differently.  It  is,  indeed,  a  great  achievement, 
it  is  the  master  work  of  the  world,  to  establish  governments  en 
tirely  popular  on  lasting  foundations ;  nor  is  it  easy,  indeed,  to 
introduce  the  popular  principle  at  all  into  governments  to  which 
it  has  been  altogether  a  stranger.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  how 
ever,  that  Europe  has  come  out  of  the  contest,  in  which  she  has 
been  so  long  engaged,  with  greatly  superior  knowledge,  and,  in 
many  respects,  in  a  highly  improved  condition.  Whatever  bene 
fit  has  been  acquired  is  likely  to  be  retained,  for  it  consists  mainly 
in  the  acquisition  of  more  enlightened  ideas.  And  although  king- 


THE  BUNKER   HILL   MONUMENT.  37 

doms  and  provinces  may  be  wrested  from  the  hands  that  hold 
them,  in  the  same  manner  they  were  obtained ;  although  ordi 
nary  and  vulgar  power  may,  in  human  affairs,  be  lost  as  it  has 
been  won ;  yet  it  is  the  glorious  prerogative  of  the  empire  of 
knowledge,  that  what  it  gains  it  never  loses.  On  the  contrary, 
it  increases  by  the  multiple  of  its  own  power ;  all  its  ends  become 
means ;  all  its  attainments,  helps  to  new  conquests.  Its  whole 
abundant  harvest  is  but  so  much  seed  wheat,  and  nothing  has 
limited,  and  nothing  can  limit,  the  amount  of  ultimate  product. 

Under  the  influence  of  this  rapidly  increasing  knowledge,  the 
people  have  begun,  in  all  forms  of  government,  to  think  and  to 
reason  on  affairs  of  state.  Regarding  government  as  an  institu 
tion  for  the  public  good,  they  demand  a  knowledge  of  its  opera 
tions  and  a  participation  in  its  exercise.  A  call  for  the  repre 
sentative  system  wherever  it  is  not  enjoyed,  and  where  there  is 
already  intelligence  enough  to  estimate  its  value,  is  perseveringly 
made.  Where  men  may  speak  out,  they  demand  it ;  where  the 
bayonet  is  at  their  throats,  they  pray  for  it. 

When  Louis  XIV.1  said,  "  I  am  the  state,"  he  expressed 
the  essence  of  the  doctrine  of  unlimited  power.  By  the  rules 
of  that  system,  the  people  are  disconnected  from  the  state : 
they  are  its  subjects ;  it  is  their  lord.  These  ideas,  founded  in 
the  love  of  power,  and  long  supported  by  the  excess  and  the 
abuse  of  it,  are  yielding,  in  our  age,  to  other  opinions ;  and  the 
civilized  world  seems  at  last  to  be  proceeding  to  the  conviction 
of  that  fundamental  and  manifest  truth,  that  the  powers  of  gov 
ernment  are  but  a  trust,  and  that  they  cannot  be  lawfully  exer 
cised  but  for  the  good  of  the  community.  As  knowledge  is 
more  and  more  extended,  this  conviction  becomes  more  and 
more  general.  Knowledge,  in  truth,  is  the  great  sun  in  the  fir 
mament.  Life  and  power  are  scattered  with  all  its  beams.  The 
prayer  of  the  Grecian  champion  when  enveloped  in  unnatural 
clouds  and  darkness  is  the  appropriate  political  supplication  for 
the  people  of  every  country  not  yet  blessed  with  free  institutions  : 
1  Louis  XIV.,  King  of  France,  1643-1715. 


3^  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

"Dispel  this  cloud,  the  light  of  heaven  restore, 
Give  me  TO  SEE, —  and  Ajax  asks  no  more."  1 

We  may  hope  that  the  growing  influence  of  enlightened  senti 
ment  will  promote  the  permanent  peace  of  the  world.  Wars  to 
maintain  family  alliances,  to  uphold  or  to  cast  down  dynasties, 
ind  to  regulate  successions  to  thrones,  which  have  occupied  so 
much  room  in  the  history  of  modern  times,  if  not  less  likely  to 
happen  at  all,  will  be  less  likely  to  become  general  and  involve 
many  nations,  as  the  great  principle  shall  be  more  and  more 
established,  that  the  interest  of  the  world  is  peace,  and  its  first 
great  statute,  that  every  nation  possesses  the  power  of  establish 
ing  a  government  for  itself.  But  public  opinion  has  attained, 
also,  an  influence  over  governments  which  do  not  admit  the  popu 
lar  principle  into  their  organization.  A  necessary  respect  for  the 
judgment  of  the  world  operates,  in  some  measure,  as  a  control 
over  the  most  unlimited  forms  of  authority.  It  is  owing,  per 
haps,  to  this  truth,  that  the  interesting  struggle  of  the  Greeks 2 
has  been  suffered  to  go  on  so  long  without  a  direct  interference, 
either  to  wrest  that  country  from  its  present  masters,  or  to  execute 
the  system  of  pacification  by  force,  and  with  united  strength  lay 
the  neck  of  Christian  and  civilized  Greek  at  the  foot  of  the  bar 
barian  Turk.  Let  us  thank  God  that  we  live  in  an  age  when 
something  has  influence  besides  the  bayonet,  and  when  the  stern 
est  authority  does  not  venture  to  encounter  the  scorching  power 
of  public  reproach.  Any  attempt  of  the  kind  I  have  mentioned 
should  be  met  by  one  universal  burst  of  indignation  ;  the  air  of 
the  civilized  world  ought  to  be  made  too  warm  to  be  comfortably 
breathed  by  any  one  who  would  hazard  it. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  touching  reflection,  that  while,  in  the  fullness  of 
our  country's  happiness,  we  rear  this  monument  to  her  honor,  we 

1  Iliad,  XVII.  729,  Pope's  translation. 

2  The  Greek  Revolution,  against  Turkish  oppression  and  for  the  freedom 
of  Greece,  was  then  in  progress.      It  had  begun  in  1820,  and  was  terminated, 
with  the  success  of  the  patriots,  in  1829. 


THE  BUNKER  HILL   MONUMENT.  39 

look  for  instruction  in  our  undertaking  to  a  country  which  is  now 
in  fearful  contest,  not  for  works  of  art  or  memorials  of  glory,  but 
for  her  own  existence.  Let  her  be  assured  that  she  is  not  for 
gotten  in  the  world,  that  her  efforts  are  applauded,  and  that 
constant  prayers  ascend  for  her  success.  And  let  us  cherish  a 
confident  hope  for  her  final  triumph.  If  the  true  spark  of  reli 
gious  and  civil  liberty  be  kindled,  it  will  burn.  Human  agency 
cannot  extinguish  it.  Like  the  earth's  central  fire,  it  may  be 
smothered  for  a  time ;  the  ocean  may  overwhelm  it ;  mountains 
may  press  it  down  ;  but  its  inherent  and  unconquerable  force  will 
heave  both  the  ocean  and  the  land,  and  at  some  time  or  other,  in 
some  place  or  other,  the  volcano  will  break  out,  and  flame  up  to 
heaven. 

Among  the  great  events  of  the  half  century  we  must  reckon, 
certainly,  the  revolution  of  South  America ;  l  and  we  are  not 
likely  to  overrate  the  importance  of  that  revolution,  either  to  the 
people  of  the  country  itself  or  to  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  late 
Spanish  colonies,  now  independent  states,  under  circumstances 
less  favorable,  doubtless,  than  attended  our  own  Revolution,  have 
yet  successfully  commenced  their  national  existence.  They  have 
accomplished  the  great  object  of  establishing  their  independence  ; 
they  are  known  and  acknowledged  in  the  world :  and  although  in 
regard  to  their  systems  of  government,  their  sentiments  on  reli 
gious  toleration,  and  their  provisions  for  public  instruction,  they 
may  have  yet  much  to  learn,  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  have 
risen  to  the  condition  of  settled  and  established  states  more  rap 
idly  than  could  have  been  reasonably  anticipated.  They  already 
furnish  an  exhilarating  example  of  the  difference  between. free 
governments  and  despotic  misrule.  Their  commerce,  at  this 
moment,  creates  a  new  activity  in  all  the  great  marts  of  the 
world.  They  show  themselves  able,  by  an  exchange  of  com 
modities,  to  bear  a  useful  part  in  the  intercourse  of  nations. 

1  The  revolution  of  the  South  American  colonies  was  at  that  time  an  event 
of  but  recent  occurrence.  It  began  in  1810,  and  ended  in  1824,  when  Bolivia, 
the  last  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  was  acknowledged  independent. 


4°  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

A  new  spirit  of  enterprise  and  industry  begins  to  prevail ;  all 
the  great  interests  of  society  receive  a  salutary  impulse ;  and  the 
progress  of  information  not  only  testifies  to  an  improved  condi 
tion,  but  itself  constitutes  the  highest  and  most  essential  improve 
ment. 

When  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  was  fought,  the  existence  of 
South  America  was  scarcely  felt  in  the  civilized  world.  The 
thirteen  little  Colonies  of  North  America  habitually  called  them 
selves  the  "  Continent."  Borne  down  by  colonial  subjugation, 
monopoly,  and  bigotry,  these  vast  regions  of  the  South  were 
hardly  visible  above  the  horizon.  But  in  our  day  there  has 
been,  as  it  were,  a  new  creation.  The  southern  hemisphere 
emerges  from  the  sea.  Its  lofty  mountains  begin  te  lift  them 
selves  into  the  light  of  heaven  ;  its  broad  and  fertile  plains  stretch 
out  in  beauty  to  the  eye  of  civilized  man ;  and  at  the  mighty 
bidding  of  the  voice  of  political  liberty  the  waters  of  darkness 
retire. 

And  now  let  us  indulge  an  honest  exultation  in  the  conviction 
of  the  benefit  which  the  example  of  our  country  has  produced, 
and  is  likely  to  produce,  on  human  freedom  and  human  happi 
ness.  Let  us  endeavor  to  comprehend  in  all  its  magnitude,  and 
to  feel  in  all  its  importance,  the  part  assigned  to  us  in  the  great 
drama  of  human  affairs.  We  are  placed  at  the  head  of  the  sys 
tem  of  representative  and  popular  governments.  Thus  far  our 
example  shows  that  such  governments  are  compatible,  not  only 
with  respectability  and  power,  but  with  repose,  with  peace,  with 
security  of  personal  rights,  with  good  laws,  and  a  just  adminis 
tration. 

We  are  not  propagandists.  Wherever  other  systems  are  pre 
ferred,  either  as  being  thought  better  in  themselves,  or  as  better 
suited  to  existing  condition,  we  leave  the  preference  to  be  en 
joyed.  Our  history  hitherto  proves,  however,  that  the  popular 
form  is  practicable,  and  that  with  wisdom  and' knowledge  men 
may  govern  themselves;  and  the  duty  incumbent  on  us  is  to 


THE  BUNKER   PULL   MONUMENT.  41 

preserve  the  consistency  of  this  cheering  example,  and  take  care 
that  nothing  may  weaken  its  authority  with  the  world.  If,  in 
our  case,  the  representative  system  ultimately  fail,  popular  gov 
ernments  must  be  pronounced  impossible.  No  combination  of 
circumstances  more  favorable  to  the  experiment  can  ever  be 
expected  to  occur.  The  last  hopes  of  mankind,  therefore,  rest 
with  us ;  and  if  it  should  be  proclaimed  that  our  example  had 
become  an  argument  against  the  experiment,  the  knell  of  popular 
liberty  would  be  sounded  throughout  the  earth. 

These  are  excitements  to  duty,  but  they  are  not  suggestions 
of  doubt.  Our  history  and  our  condition,  all  that  is  gone  before 
us,  and  all  that  surrounds  us,  authorize  the  belief  that  popular 
governments,  though  subject  to  occasional  variations,  in  form 
perhaps  not  always  for  the  better,  may  yet,  in  their  general 
character,  be  as  durable  and  permanent  as  other  systems.  We 
know,  indeed,  that  in  our  country  any  other  is  impossible.  The 
principle  of  free  governments  adheres  to  the  American  soil.  It 
is  bedded  in  it,  immovable  as  its  mountains. 

And  let  the  sacred  obligations  which  have  devolved  on  this 
generation  and  on  us  sink  deep  into  our  hearts.  Those  who 
established  our  liberty  and  our  government  are  daily  dropping 
from  among  us.  The  great  trust  now  descends  to  new  hands. 
Let  us  apply  ourselves  to  that  which  is  presented  to  us  as  our 
appropriate  object.  We  can  win  no  laurels  in  a  war  for  inde 
pendence.  Earlier  and  worthier  hands  have  gathered  them  all. 
Nor  are  there  places  for  us  by  the  side  of  Solon  *  and  Alfred  2 
and  other  founders  of  states.  Our  fathers  have  filled  them. 
But  there  remains  to  us  a  great  duty  of  defense  and  preserva 
tion  ;  and  there  is  opened  to  us,  also,  a  noble  pursuit  to  which 
the  spirit  of  the  times  strongly  invites  us.  Our  proper  business 

1  Solon,  the  most  famous  of  the  lawgivers  of  ancient  Greece  (born  about 
638  B.C.),  established  a  new  code  of  laws  for  Athens. 

2  King  Alfred  the  Great,  of  England  (849-901),  reduced  the  Anglo-Saxon 
laws  to  a  system,  and  made  great  improvements  in  the  administration  of  jus 
tice.     He  is  sometimes  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  English  monarchy. 


42  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

is  improvement.  Let  our  age  be  the  age  of  improvement.  In 
a  day  of  peace,  let  us  advance  the  arts  of  peace  and  the  works 
of  peace.  Let  us  develop  the  resources  of  our  land,  call  forth  its 
powers,  build  up  its  institutions,  promote  all  its  great  interests, 
and  see  whether  we  also,  in  our  day  and  generation,  may  not  per 
form  something  worthy  to  be  remembered.  Let  us  cultivate  a 
true  spirit  of  union  and  harmony.  In  pursuing  the  great  objects 
which  our  condition  points  out  to  us,  let  us  act  under  a  settled 
conviction  and  an  habitual  feeling,  that  these  twenty-four  States 
are  one  country.  Let  our  conceptions  be  enlarged  to  the  circle 
of  our  duties.  Let  us  extend  our  ideas  over  the  whole  of  the 
vast  field  in  which  we  are  called  to  act.  Let  our  object  be,  OUR 

COUNTRY,  OUR  WHOLE  COUNTRY,  AND  NOTHING  BUT  OUR  COUN 
TRY.  And,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  may  that  country  itself 
become  a  vast  and  splendid  monument,  not  of  oppression  and 
terror,  but  of  Wisdom,  of  Peace,  and  of  Liberty,  upon  which 
the  world  may  gaze  with  admiration  forever  ! 


6ft 


THE    COMPLETION    OF   THE    BUNKER 
HILL   MONUMENT. 

AN    ADDRESS    DELIVERED    ON    BUNKER    HILL,    ON    THE     iyTH    OF 

JUNE,    1843,  ON    THE    OCCASION    OF    THE    COMPLETION 

OF   THE    MONUMENT. 


A  DUTY  has  been  performed.    A  work  of  gratitude  and  patri 
otism  is  completed.     This  structure,  having  its  foundations 
in  soil  which  drank  deep  of  early  Revolutionary  blood,  has  at 
length  reached  its  destined  height,  and  now  lifts  its  summit  to  the 
skies. 

We  have  assembled  to  celebrate  the  accomplishment  of  this 
undertaking,  and  to  indulge  afresh  in  the  recollection  of  the  great 
event  which  it  is  designed  to  commemorate.  Eighteen  years, 
more  than  half  the  ordinary  duration  of  a  generation  of  man 
kind,  have  elapsed  since  the  corner  stone  of  this  monument  was 
laid.  The  hopes  of  its  projectors  rested  on  voluntary  contribu 
tions,  private  munificence,  and  the  general  favor  of  the  public. 
These  hopes  have  not  been  disappointed.  Donations  have  been 
made  by  individuals,  in  some  cases  of  large  amount ;  and  smaller 
sums  have  been  contributed  by  thousands.  All  who  regard  the 
object  itself  as  important,  and  its  accomplishment,  therefore,  as 
a  good  attained,  will  entertain  sincere  respect  and  gratitude  for 
the  unwearied  efforts  of  the  successive  presidents,  boards  of 
directors,  and  committees  of  the  Association  which  has  had  the 
general  control  of  the  work.  The  architect,  equally  entitled  to 

43 


44  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

our  thanks  and  commendation,  will  find  other  reward,  also,  for 
his  labor  and  skill,  in  the  beauty  and  elegance  of  the  obelisk 
itself,  and  the  distinction  which,  as  a  work  of  art,  it  confers  upon 
him. 

At  a  period  when  the  prospects  of  further  progress  in  the 
undertaking  were  gloomy  and  discouraging,  the  Mechanic  Asso 
ciation,  by  a  most  praiseworthy  and  vigorous  effort,  raised  new 
funds  for  carrying  it  forward,  and  saw  them  applied  with  fidelity, 
economy,  and  skill.  It  is  a  grateful  duty  to  make  public  acknowl 
edgments  of  such  timely  and  efficient  aid. 

The  last  effort  and  the  last  contribution  were  from  a  different 
source.  Garlands  of  grace  and  elegance  were  destined  to  crown 
a  work  which  had  its  commencement  in  manly  patriotism.  The 
winning  power  of  the  sex  addressed  itself  to  the  public,  and  all 
that  was  needed  to  carry  the  monument  to  its  proposed  height, 
and  to  give  to  it  its  finish,  was  promptly  supplied.  The  mothers 
and  the  daughters  of  the  land  contributed  thus,  most  successfully, 
to  whatever  there  is  of  beauty  in  the  monument  itself,  or  what 
ever  of  utility  and  public  benefit  and  gratification  there  is  in  its 
completion. 

Of  those  with  whom  the  plan  originated,  of  erecting  on  this 
spot  a  monument  worthy  of  the  event  to  be  commemorated, 
many  are  now  present ;  but  others,  alas  !  have  themselves  be 
come  subjects  of  monumental  inscription.  William- Tudor — an 
accomplished  scholar,  a  distinguished  writer,  a  most  amiable 
man,  allied  both  by  birth  and  sentiment  to  the  patriots  of  the 
Revolution  —  died  while  on  public  service  abroad,  and  now  lies 
buried  in  a  foreign  land.1  William  Sullivan  —  a  name  fragrant  of 
Revolutionary  merit  and  of  public  service  and  public  virtue,  who 
himself  partook  in  a  high  degree  of  the  respect  and  confidence 
of  the  community,  and  yet  was  always  most  loved  where  best 
known  —  has  also  been  gathered  to  his  fathers.  And  last,  George 
Blake  —  a  lawyer  of  learning  and  eloquence,  a  man  of  wit  and  of 

1  William  Tudor  died  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  while  Charge d' *  Affaires  of  the 
United  States,  in  1830.  See  Introduction. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  45 

talent,  of  social  qualities  the  most  agreeable  and  fascinating,  and 
of  gifts  which  enabled  him  to  exercise  large  sway  over  public 
assemblies — has  closed  his  human  career.1  I  know  that  in  the 
crowds  before  me  there  are  those  from  whose  eyes  tears  will 
flowr  at  the  mention  of  these  names.  But  such  mention  is  due 
to  their  general  character,  their  public  and  private  virtues,  and 
especially,  on  this  occasion,  to  the  spirit  and  zeal  with  which 
they  entered  into  the  undertaking  which  is  now  completed. 

I  *have  spoken  only  of  those  who  are  no  longer  numbered  with 
the  living.  But  a  long  life,  now  drawing  towards  its  close,  al 
ways  distinguished  by  acts  of  public  spirit,  humanity,  and  charity, 
forming  a  character  which  has  already  become  historical,  and 
sanctified  by  public  regard  and  the  affection  of  friends,  may 
confer  even  on  the  living  the  proper  immunity  of  the  dead,  and 
be  the  fit  subject  of  honorable  mention  and  warm  commendation. 
Of  the  early  projectors  of  the  design  of  this  monument,  one  of 
the  most  prominent,  the  most  zealous,  and  the  most  efficient,  is 
Thomas  H.  Perkins.2  It  was-  beneath  his  ever  hospitable  roof 
that  those  whom  I  have  mentioned,  and  others  yet  living  and 
now  present,  having  assembled  for  the  purpose,  adopted  the  first 
step  towards  erecting  a  monument  on  Bunker  Hill.  Long  may 
he  remain,  with  unimpaired  faculties,  in  the  wide  field  of  his 
usefulness  !  His  charities  have  distilled  like  the  dews  of  heaven ; 
he  has  fed  the  hungry,  and  clothed  the  naked ;  he  has  given 
sight  to  the  blind:  and  for  such  virtues  there  is  a  reward  on 
high  of  which  all  human  memorials,  all  language  of  brass  and 
stone,  are  but  humble  types  and  attempted  imitations. 

Time  and  nature  have  had  their  course  in  diminishing  the 
number  of  those  whom  we  met  here  on  the  ryth  of  June,  1825. 
Most  of  the  Revolutionary  characters  then  present  have  since 

1  William  Sullivan  died  in  Boston  in  1839,  George  Blake,  in  1841 ;  both 
gentlemen  of  great  political  and  legal  eminence. 

2  Thomas  Handasyd  Perkins,  a  distinguished  merchant  and  philanthropist 
of  Boston,  founder  of  the  Perkins  Institution  and  Massachusetts  School  for 
the  Blind.     He  died  Jan.  n,  1854. 


46  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

deceased ;  and  Lafayette  sleeps  in  his  native  land.  Yet  the  name 
and  blood  of  Warren  are  with  us ;  the  kindred  of  Putnam  are 
also  here ;  and  near  me,  universally  beloved  for  his  character 
and  his  virtues,  and  now  venerable  for  his  years,  sits  the  son 
of  the  noble-hearted  and  daring  Prescott.1  Gideon  Foster  of 
Danvers,  Enos  Reynolds  of  Boxford,  Phineas  Johnson,  Robert 
Andrews,  Elijah  Dresser,  Josiah  Cleaveland,  Jesse  Smith,  Philip 
Bagley,  Needham  Maynard,  Roger  Plaisted,  Joseph  Stephens, 
Nehemiah  Porter,  and  James  Harvey,  who  bore  arms  for  their 
country,  either  at  Concord  and  Lexington  on  the  igth  of  April, 
or  on  Bunker  Hill,  all  now  far  advanced  in  age,  have  come  here 
to-day  to  look  once  more  on  the  field  where  their  valor  was 
proved,  and  to  receive  a  hearty  outpouring  of  our  respect. 

They  have  long  outlived  the  troubles  and  dangers  of  the  Revo 
lution  ;  they  have  outlived  the  evils  arising  from  the  want  of  a 
united  and  efficient  government ;  they  have  outlived  the  menace 
of  imminent  dangers  to  the  public  liberty ;  they  have  outlived 
nearly  all  their  contemporaries :  but  they  have  not  outlived,  they 
cannot  outlive,  the  affectionate  gratitude  of  their  country.  Heav 
en  has  not  allotted  to  this  generation  an  opportunity  of  rendering 
high  services,  and  manifesting  strong  personal  devotion,  such  as 
they  rendered  and  manifested,  and  in  such  a  cause  as  that  which 
roused  the  patriotic  fires  of  their  youthful  breasts,  and  nerved  the 
strength  of  their  arms.  But  we  may  praise  what  we  cannot  equal, 
and  celebrate  actions  which  we  were  not  born  to  perform.  Pul- 
chrum  est  benefacere  reipubliccz,  etiam  benedicere  hand  absurdum  est. 

The  Bunker  Hill  Monument  is  finished.  Here  it  stands.  For 
tunate  in  the  high  natural  eminence  on  which  it  is  placed,  higher, 
infinitely  higher,  in  its  objects  and  purpose,  it  rises  over  the  land 
and  over  the  sea ;  and,  visible  at  their  homes  to  three  hundred 
thousand  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts,  it  stands  a  memorial 
of  the  last,  and  a  monitor  to  the  present,  and  to  all  succeeding 

1  "  William  Prescott  (since  deceased,  in  1844),  son  of  Col.  William  Pres 
cott,  who  commanded  on  the  1 7th  of  June,  1775,  and  father  of  William  H. 
Prescott,  the  historian."  —  EVERETT. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  47 

generations.  I  have  spoken  of  the  loftiness  of  its  purpose.  If 
it  had  been  without  any  other  design  than  the  creation  of  a  work 
of  art,  the  granite  of  which  it  is  composed  would  have  slept  in 
its  native  bed.  It  has  a  purpose,  and  that  purpose  gives  it  its 
character.  That  purpose  enrobes  it  with  dignity  and  moral 
grandeur.  That  well-known  purpose  it  is  which  causes  us  to 
look  up  to  it  with  a  feeling  of  awe.  It  is  itself  the  orator  of  this 
occasion.  It  is  not  from  my  lips,  it  could  not  be  from  any  hu 
man  lips,  that  that  strain  of  eloquence  is  this  day  to  flow  most 
competent  to  move  and  excite  the  vast  multitudes  around  me. 
The  powerful  speaker  stands  motionless  before  us.1  It  is  a  plain 
shaft.  It  bears  no  inscriptions,  fronting  to  the  rising  sun,  from 
which  the  future  antiquary  shall  wipe  the  dust.  Nor  does  the 
rising  sun  cause  tones  of  music  to  issue  from  its  summit.  Bur 
at  the  rising  of  the  sun  and  at  the  setting  of  the  sun,  in  the 
blaze  of  noonday,  and  beneath  the  milder  effulgence  of  lunar 
light,  it  looks,  it  speaks,  it  acts,  to  the  full  comprehension  of 
every  American  mind,  and  the  awakening  of  glowing  enthusiasm 
in  every  American  heart.  Its  silent  but  awful  utterance ;  its 
deep  pathos  as  it  brings  to  our  contemplation  the  iyth  of  June, 
1775,  and  the  consequences  which  have  resulted  to  us,  to  our 
country,  and  to  the  world,  from  the  events  of  that  day,  and  which 
we  know  must  continue  to  rain  influence  on  the  destinies  of  man 
kind  to  the  end  of  time  ;  the  elevation  with  which  it  raises  us  high 
above  the  ordinary  feelings  of  life,  —  surpass  all  that  the  study  of 
the  closet,  or  even  the  inspiration  of  genius,  can  produce.  To-day 
it  speaks  to  us :  its  future  auditories  will  be  the  successive  gen 
erations  of  men  as  they  rise  up  before  it  and  gather  around  it. 
Its  speech  will  be  of  patriotism  and  courage,  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  of  free  government,  of  the  moral  improvement  and  eleva 
tion  of  mankind,  and  of  the  immortal  memory  of  those  who,  with 
heroic  devotion,  have  sacrificed  their  lives  for  their  country. 

1  It  is  related  that  at  this  point  in  his  speech  the  orator  was  interrupted  by 
ft  spontaneous  burst  of  applause  from  his  hearers,  and  that  such  was  their 
enthusiasm,  that  it  was  several  moments  before  he  could  proceed. 


4&  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

In  the  older  world,  numerous  fabrics  still  exist,  reared  by  hu 
man  hands,  but  whose  object  has  been  lost  in  the  darkness  of 
ages.  They  are  now  monuments  of  nothing  but  the  labor  and 
skill  which  constructed  them. 

The  mighty  Pyramid  itself,  half  buried  in  the  sands  of  Africa,  has 
nothing  to  bring  down  and  report  to  us  but  the  power  of  kings 
and  the  servitude  of  the  people.  If  it  had  any  purpose  beyond 
that  of  a  mausoleum,  such  purpose  has  perished  from  history  and 
from  tradition.  If  asked  for  its  moral  object,  its  admonition,  its 
sentiment,  its  instruction  to  mankind,  or  any  high  end  in  its  erec 
tion,  it  is  silent,  —  silent  as  the  millions  which  lie  in  the  dust  at  its 
base,  and  in  the  catacombs  which  surround  it.  Without  a  just 
moral  object,  therefore,  made  known  to  man,  though  raised 
against  the  skies,  it  excites  only' conviction  of  power  mixed  with 
strange  wonder.  But  if  the  civilization  of  the  present  race  of 
men  —  founded  as  it  is  in  solid  science,  the  true  knowledge  of 
nature,  and  vast  discoveries  in  art,  and  which  is  elevated  and 
purified  by  moral  sentiment  and  by  the  truths  of  Christianity — be 
not  destined  to  destruction  before  the  final  termination  of  human 
existence  on  earth,  the  object  and  purpose  of  this  edifice  will  be 
known  till  that  hour  shall  come.  And  even  if  civilization  should 
be  subverted,  and  the  truths  of  the  Christian  religion  obscured 
by  a  new  deluge  of  barbarism,  the  memory  of  Bunker  Hill  and 
the  American  Revolution  will  still  be  elements  and  parts  of  the 
knowledge  which  shall  be  possessed  by  the  last  man  to  whom 
the  light  of  civilization  and  Christianity  shall  be  extended. 

This  celebration  is  honored  by  the  presence  of  the  chief  execu, 
tive  magistrate  of  the  Union.  An  occasion  so  national  in  its 
object  and  character,  and  so  much  connected  with  that  Revolu- 
'tion  from  which  the  government  sprang  at  the  head  of  which  he 
is  placed,  may  well  receive  from  him  this  mark  of  attention  and 
respect.  Well  acquainted  with  Yorktown,1  the  scene  of  the  last 

1  President  Tyler  was  a  native  of  Virginia,  and  his  birthplace  was  within 
less  than  forty  miles  of  Yorktown.  The  surrender  of  the  British  army  under 
Cornwallis,  at  Yorktown,  occurred  Oct.  19,  1781. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  49 

great  military  struggle  of  the  Revolution,  his  eye  now  surveys 
the  field  of  Bunker  Hill,  the  theater  of  the  first  of  those  impor 
tant  conflicts.  He  sees  where  Warren  fell,  where  Putnam  and 
Prescott  and  Stark  and  Knowlton  and  Brooks  fought.  He 
beholds  the  spot  where  a  thousand  trained  soldiers  of  England 
were  smitten  to  the  earth,  in  the  first  effort  of  revolutionary  war, 
by  the  arm  of  a  bold  and  determined  yeomanry  contending  for 
liberty  and  their  country.  And  while  all  assembled  here  enter 
tain  towards  him  sincere  personal  good  wishes  and  the  high  re 
spect  due  to  his  elevated  office  and  station,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
that  he  enters  with  true  American  feeling  into  the  patriotic  en 
thusiasm  kindled  by  the  occasion  which  animates  the  multitudes 
that  surround  him. 

His  Excellency  the  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Rhode  Island,  and  the  other  distinguished  public  men 
whom  we  have  the  honor  to  receive  as  visitors  and  guests  to-day, 
will  cordially  unite  in  a  celebration  connected  with  the  great  event 
of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

No  name  in  the  history  of  1775  and  1776  is  more  distinguished 
than  that  borne  by  an  ex-president  of  the  United  States,1  whom 
we  expected  to  see  here,  but  whose  ill  health  prevents  his  attend 
ance.  Whenever  popular  rights  were  to  be  asserted,  an  Adams 
was  present ;  and  when  the  time  came  for  the  formal  Declaration 
of  Independence,  it  was  the  voice  of  an  Adams  that  shook  the 
halls  of  Congress.  We  wish  we  could  have  welcomed  to  us  this 
day  the  inheritor  of  Revolutionary  blood,  and  the  just  and  worthy 
representative  of  high  Revolutionary  names,  merit,  and  services. 

Banners  and  badges,  processions  and  flags,  announce  to  us 
tnat  amidst  this  uncounted  throng  are  thousands  of  natives  of 
New  England  now  residents  in  other  States.  Welcome,  ye  kin 
dred  names,  with  kindred  blood  !  From  the  broad  savannas2 
of  the  South,  from  the  newer  regions  of  the  West,  from  amidst 

1  John  Quincy  Adams  ( 1 767-1848),  the  sixth  President  of  the  United  States 
(1825-29). 

2  Plains,  or  meadows. 


50  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  of  Eastern  origin  who  culti 
vate  the  rich  valley  of  the  Genesee,  or  live  along  the  chain  of 
the  Lakes,  from  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania,  and  from  the 
thronged  cities  of  the  coast,  welcome,  welcome  !  Wherever  else 
you  may  be  strangers,  here  you  are  all  at  home.  You  assemble 
at  this  shrine  of  liberty,  near  the  family  altars  at  which  your  ear 
liest  devotions  were  paid  to  Heaven,  near  to  the  temples  of 
worship  first  entered  by  you,  and  near  to  the  schools  and  colleges 
in  which  your  education  was  received.  You  come  hither  with  a 
glorious  ancestry  of  liberty.  You  bring  names  which  are  on  the 
rolls  of  Lexington,  Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill.  You  come,  some 
of  you,  once  more  to  be  embraced  by  an  aged  Revolutionary 
father,  or  to  receive  another,  perhaps  a  last,  blessing,  bestowed  in 
love  and  tears,  by  a  mother,  yet  surviving  to  witness  and  to 
enjoy  your  prosperity  and  happiness. 

But  if  family  associations  and  the  recollections  of  the  past 
bring-  you  hither  with  greater  alacrity,  and  mingle  with  your 
greeting  much  of  local  attachment  and  private  affection,  greeting 
also  be  given,  free  and  hearty  greeting,  to  every  American  citizen 
who  treads  this  sacred  soil  with  patriotic  feeling,  and  respires  with 
pleasure  in  an  atmosphere  perfumed  with  the  recollections  of 
1775  !  This  occasion  is  respectable,1  nay,  it  is  grand,  it  is  sub 
lime,  by  the  nationality  of  its  sentiment.  Among  the  seventeen 
millions  of  happy  people  who  form  the  American  community, 
there  is  not  one  who  has  not  an  interest  in  this  monument,  as 
there  is  not  one  that  has  not  a  deep  and  abiding  interest  in  that 
which  it  commemorates. 

Woe  betide  the  man  who  brings  to  this  day's  worship  feeling 
less  than  wholly  American  !  Woe  betide  the  man  who  can  stand 
here  with  the  fires  of  local  resentments  burning,  or  the  purpose 
of  fomenting  local  jealousies  and  the  strifes  of  local  interests  fes 
tering  and  rankling  in  his  heart  !  Union,  established  in  justice, 
in  patriotism,  and  the  most  plain  and  obvious  common  interest ; 

1  This  is  a  favorite  word  with  Webster,  and  he  often  gives  to  it  an  unusual 
significance. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  51 

union,  founded  on  the  same  love  of  liberty,  cemented  by  blood 
shed  in  the  same  common  cause,  —  union  has  been  the  source  of 
all  our  glory  and  greatness  thus  far,  and  is  the  ground  of  all  our 
highest  hopes.  This  column  stands  on  union.  I  know  not  that 
it  might  not  keep  its  position  if  the  American  Union,  in  the  mad 
conflict  of  human  passions,  and  in  the  strife  of  parties  and  fac 
tions,  should  be  broken  up  and  destroyed.  I  know  not  that  it 
would  totter  and  fall  to  the  earth,  and  mingle  its  fragments  with 
the  fragments  of  Liberty  and  the  Constitution,  when  State  should 
be  separated  from  State,  and  faction  and  dismemberment  obliter 
ate  forever  all  the  hopes  of  the  founders  of  our  Republic  and  the 
great  inheritance  of  their  children.  It  might  stand.  But  who, 
from  beneath  the  weight  of  mortification  and  shame  that  would 
oppress  him,  could  look  up  to  behold  it  ?  Whose  eyeballs  would 
not  be  seared  by  such  a  spectacle  ?  For  my  part,  should  I  live 
to  such  a  time,  I  shall  avert  my  eyes  from  it  forever. 

It  is  not  as  a  mere  military  encounter  of  hostile  armies  that 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  presents  its  principal  claim  to  attention. 
Yet,  even  as  a  mere  battle,  there  were  circumstances  attending 
it  extraordinary  in  character,  and  entitling  it  to  peculiar  distinc 
tion.  It  was  fought  on  this  eminence,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
yonder  city,  in  the  presence  of  many  more  spectators  than  there 
were  combatants  in  the  conflict.  Men,  women,  and  children, 
from  every  commanding  position,  were  gazing  at  the  battle,  and 
looking  for  its  results  with  all  the  eagerness  natural  to  those  who 
knew  that  the  issue  was  fraught  with  the  deepest  consequences 
to  themselves  personally,  as  well  as  to  their  country.  Yet  on  the 
1 6th  of  June,  1775,  there  was  nothing  around  this  hill  but  ver 
dure  and  culture.  There  was,  indeed,  the  note  of  awful  prepara 
tion  in  Boston.  There  was  the  Provincial  army  at  Cambridge, 
with  its  right  flank  resting  on  Dorchester,  and  its  left  on  Chelsea. 
But  here  all  was  peace.  Tranquillity  reigned  around.  On  the 
1 7th,  everything  was  changed.  On  this  eminence  had  arisen,  in 
the  night,  a  redoubt,  built  by  Prescott,  and  in  which  he  held 
command.  Perceived  by  the  enemy  at  dawn,  it  was  immediately 


52  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

cannonaded  from  the  floating  batteries  in  the  river,  and  from  the 
opposite  shore.  And  then  ensued  the  hurried  movement  in  Bos 
ton,  and  soon  the  troops  of  Britain  embarked  in  the  attempt  to 
dislodge  the  colonists.  In  an  hour  everything  indicated  an  im 
mediate  and  bloody  conflict.  Love  of  liberty  on  one  side,  proud 
defiance  of  rebellion  on  the  other,  hopes  and  fears,  arid  courage 
and  daring,  on  both  sides,  animated  the  hearts  of  the  combatants 
as  they  hung  on  the  edge  of  battle. 

I  suppose  it  would  be  difficult,  in  a  military  point  of  view,  to 
ascribe  to  the  leaders  on  either  side  any  just  motive  for  the  en 
gagement  which  followed.  On  the  one  hand,  it  could  not  have 
been  very  important  'to  the  Americans  to  attempt  to  hem  the 
British  within  the  town,  by  advancing  one  single  post  a  quarter 
of  a  mile ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  if  the  British  found  it  essen 
tial  to  dislodge  the  American  troops,  they  had  it  in  their  power 
at  no  expense  of  life.  By  moving  up  their  ships  and  batteries, 
they  could  have  completely  cut  off  all  communication  with  the 
mainland  over  the  Neck,  and  the  forces  in  the  redoubt  would 
have  been  reduced  to  a  state  of  famine  in  forty-eight  hours. 

But  that  was  not  the  day  for  any  such  consideration  on  either 
side.  Both  parties  were  anxious  to  try  the  strength  of  their 
arms.  The  pride  of  England  would  not  permit  the  "rebels,"  as 
she  termed  them,  to  defy  her  to  the  teeth ;  and,  without  for  a 
moment  calculating  the  cost,  the  British  general  determined  to 
destroy  the  fort  immediately.  On  the  other  side,  Prescott  and 
his  gallant  followers  longed  and  thirsted  for  a  decisive  trial  of 
strength  and  of  courage.  They  wished  a  battle,  and  wished  it 
at  once.  And  this  is  the  true  secret  of  the  movements  on  this  hill. 

I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  that  battle.  The  cannonading, 
the  landing  of  the  British,  their  advance,  the  coolness  with 
which  the  charge  was  met,  the  repulse,  the  second  attack,  the 
second  repulse,  the  burning  of  Charlestown,  and  finally  the 
closing  assault  and  the  slow  retreat  of  the  Americans,  —  the  his 
tory  of  all  these  is  familiar. 

But  the  consequences  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  were  greater 


SECOND   BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  53 

than  those  of  any  ordinary  conflict,  although  between  armies  of 
far  greater  force,  and  terminating  with  more  immediate  advan 
tage  on  the  one  side  or  the  other.  It  was  the  first  great  battle 
of  the  Revolution,  and  not  only  the  first  blow,  but  the  blow 
which  determined  the  contest.  It  did  not,  indeed,  put  an  end 
to  the  war ;  but,  in  the  then  existing  hostile  state  of  feeling,  the 
difficulties  could  only  be  referred  to  the  arbitration  of  the  sword. 
And  one  thing  is  certain,  —  that,  after  the  New-England  troops 
had  shown  themselves  able  to  face  and  repulse  the  regulars,  it 
was  decided  that  peace  never  could  be  established  but  upon  the 
basis  of  the  independence  of  the  Colonies.  When  the  sun  of 
that  day  went  down,  the  event  of  independence  was  no  longer 
doubtful.  In  a  few  days  Washington  heard  of  the  battle,  and 
he  inquired  if  the  militia  had  stood  the  fire  of  the  regulars.  When 
told  that  they  had  not  only  stood  that  fire,  but  reserved  their 
own  till  the  enemy  was  within  eight  rods,  and  then  poured  it  in 
with  tremendous  effect,  "  Then,"  exclaimed  he,  "  the  liberties  of 
the  country  are  safe  ! " 

The  consequences  of  this  battle  were  just  of  the  same  impor 
tance  as  the  Revolution  itself. 

If  there  was  nothing  of  value  in  the  principles  of  the  American 
Revolution,  then  there  is  nothing  valuable  in  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill  and  its  consequences.  But  if  the  Revolution  was  an  era  in 
the  history  of  man  favorable  to  human  happiness,  if  it  was  an 
event  which  marked  the  progress  of  man  all  over  the  world  from 
despotism  to  liberty,  then  this  monument  is  not  raised  without 
cause.  Then  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  is  not  an  event  unde 
serving  celebrations,  commemorations,  and  rejoicings,  now  and 
in  all  coming  times. 

What,  then,  is  the  true  and  peculiar  principle  of  the  American 
Revolution,  and  of  the  systems  of  government  which  it  has  con 
firmed  and  established  ?  The  truth  is,  that  the  American  Revo 
lution  was  not  caused  by  the  instantaneous  discovery  of  principles 
of  government  before  unheard  of,  or  the  practical  adoption  of 
political  ideas  such  as  had  never  before  entered  into  the  minds 


54  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

of  men.  It  was  but  the  full  development  of  principles  of  gov 
ernment,  forms  of  society,  and  political  sentiments,  the  origin  of 
all  which  lay  back  two  centuries  in  English  and  American  history. 
The  discovery  of  America,  its  colonization  by  the  nations  of 
Europe,  the  history  and  progress  of  the  Colonies,  from  their 
establishment  to  the  time  when  the  principal  of  them  threw  off 
their  allegiance  to  the  respective  states  by  which  they  had  been 
planted,  and  founded  governments  of  their  own,  constitute  one 
of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the  annals  of  man.  These 
events  occupied  three  hundred  years,  during  which  period  civil 
ization  and  knowledge  made  steady  progress  in  the  Old  World ; 
so  that  Europe,  at  the  commencement  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
had  become  greatly  changed  from  that  Europe  which  began  the 
colonization  of  America  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  or  the  com 
mencement  of  the  sixteenth.  And.  what  is  most  material  to  my 
present  purpose  is,  that  in  the  progress  of  the  first  of  these  cen 
turies,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  discovery  of  America  to  the  settle 
ments  of  Virginia  and  Massachusetts,  political  and  religious 
events  took  place  which  most  materially  affected  the  state  of 
society  and  the  sentiments  of  mankind,  especially  in  England 
and  in  parts  of  Continental  Europe.  After  a  few  feeble  and 
unsuccessful  efforts  by  England,  under  Henry  VII.,1  to  plant 
colonies  in  America,  no  designs  of  that  kind  were  prosecuted  for 
a  long  period,  either  by  the  English  Government  or  any  of  its 
subjects.  Without  inquiring  into  the  causes  of  this  delay,  its 
consequences  are  sufficiently  clear  and  striking.  England,  in 
this  lapse  of  a  century,  unknown  to  herself,  but  under  the  provi 
dence  of  God  and  the  influence  of  events,  was  fitting  herself  for 
the  work  of  colonizing  North  America,  on  such  principles,  and 
by  such  men,  as  should  spread  the  English  name  and  English 
blood,  in  time,  over  a  great  portion  of  the  Western  hemisphere. 

1  It  was  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  that  John  Cabot,  under  a  royal 
commission,  discovered  the  coast  of  North  America,  — a  discovery  upon  which 
the  subsequent  claims  of  the  English  to  jurisdiction  on  this  continent  were 
based. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  55 

The  commercial  spirit  was  greatly  fostered  by  several  laws 
passed  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. ;  and  in  the  same  reign  en 
couragement  was  given  to  arts  and  manufactures  in  the  eastern 
counties,  and  some  not  unimportant  modifications  of  the  feudal 
system  took  place  by  allowing  the  breaking  of  entails.1  These 
and  other  measures,  and  other  occurrences,  were  making  way  for 
a  new  class  of  society  to  emerge  and  show  itself  in  a  military 
and  feudal  age ;  a  middle  class,  between  the  barons  or  great 
landholders  and  the  retainers  of  the  Crown  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  tenants  of  the  Crown  and  barons,  and  agricultural  and  other 
laborers,  on  the  other  side.  With  the  rise  and  growth  of  this 
new  class  of  society,  not  only  did  commerce  and  the  arts  in 
crease,  but  better  education,  a  greater  degree  of  knowledge, 
juster  notions  of  the  true  ends  of  government,  and  sentiments 
favorable  to  civil  liberty,  began  to  spread  abroad,  and  become 
more  and  more  common.  But  the  plants  springing  from  these 
seeds  were  of  slow  growth.  The  character  of  English  society 
had  indeed  begun  to  undergo  a  change ;  but  changes  of  national 
character  are  ordinarily  the  work  of  time.  Operative  causes 
were,  however,  evidently  in  existence,  and  sure  to  produce, 
ultimately,  their  proper  effect.  From  the  accession  of  Henry 
VII.  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  wars,2  England  enjoyed 
much  greater  exemption  from  war,  foreign  and  domestic,  than 
for  a  long  period  before,  and  during  the  controversy  between  the 
houses  of  York  and  Lancaster.3  These  years  of  peace  were  fa 
vorable  to  commerce  and  the  arts.  Commerce  and  the  arts  aug 
mented  general  and  individual  knowledge ;  and  knowledge  is  the 
only  fountain,  both  of  the  love  and  the  principles  of  human  liberty. 

1  Laws  forbidding  the  owner  of  an  estate  to  transfer  it  to  any  person  ex 
cept  the  legal  heir. 

2  That  is,  from  1485  to  about  1640. 

3  This  conflict  between  the  two  great  families  of  England,  each  claiming 
the  right  to  the  royal  succession,   is  known  in  history  as  the  War  of  the 
Roses.     It  began  in  1455,  and  continued  until  the  death  of  Richard  III.  in 
1485. 


56  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

Other  powerful  causes  soon  came  into  active  play.  The  Ref 
ormation  of  Luther 1  broke  out,  kindling  up  the  minds  of  men 
afresh,  leading  to  new  habits  of  thought,  and  awakening  in  indi 
viduals  energies  before  unknown  even  to  themselves.  The  reli 
gious  controversies  of  this  period  changed  society  as  well  as  re 
ligion  :  indeed,  it  would  be  easy  to  prove,  if  this  occasion  were 
proper  for  it,  that  they  changed  society  to  a  considerable  extent, 
where  they  did  not  change  the  religion  of  the  state.  They 
changed  man  himself,  in  his  modes  of  thought,  his  consciousness 
of  his  own  powers,  and  his  desire  of  intellectual  attainment.  The 
spirit  of  commercial  and  foreign  adventure,  therefore,  on  the  one 
hand,  which  had  gained  so  much  strength  and  influence  since  the 
time  of  the  discovery  of  America  ;  and,  on  the  other,  the  assertion 
and  maintenance  of  religious  liberty,  having  their  source  indeed 
in  the  Reformation,  but  continued,  diversified,  and  constantly 
strengthened  by  the  subsequent  divisions  of  sentiment  and  opin 
ion  among  the  Reformers  themselves ;  and  this  love  of  religious 
liberty,  drawing  after  it,  or  bringing  along  with  it,  as  it  always 
does,  an  ardent  devotion  to  the  principle  of  civil  liberty  also, — 
were  the  powerful  influences  under  which  character  was  formed, 
and  men  trained,  for  the  great  work  of  introducing  English  civil 
ization,  English  law,  and,  what  is  more  than  all,  Anglo-Saxon 
blood,  into  the  wilderness  of  North  America.  Raleigh  2  and  his 
companions  may  be  considered  as  the  creatures,  principally,  of 
the  first  of  these  causes.  High-spirited,  full  of  the  love  of  per 
sonal  adventure,  excited,  too,  in  some  degree,  by  the  hopes  of 
sudden  riches  from  the  discovery  of  mines  of  the  precious  metals, 
and  not  unwilling  to  diversify  the  labors  of  settling  a  colony  with 
occasional  cruising  against  the  Spaniards  in  the  West  Indian  seas, 

1  This  great  religious  and  political  movement,  which  engaged  the  attention 
of  a  large  portion  of  Europe  during  the  sixteenth  century,  is  so  called  from 
Martin  Luther,    its  most    distinguished  promoter.      The    Reformation  was 
begun  in  Switzerland  by  Zwingli  in   1516;  in  Germany,  by  Luther  in  1517; 
and  in  England,  by  Henry  VIII.  in  1534. 

2  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (1552-1618). 


•  SECOND  BUNKER   HILL  ADDRESS.  57 

they  crossed  and  recrossed  the  ocean  with  a  frequency  which 
surprises  us  when  we  consider  the  state  of  navigation,  and  which 
evinces  a  most  daring  spirit. 

The  other  cause  peopled  New  England.  The  "Mayflower" 
sought  our  shores  under  no  high-wrought  spirit  of  commercial 
adventure,  no  love  of  gold,  no  mixture  of  purpose  warlike  or 
hostile  to  any  human  being.  Like  the  dove  from  the  ark,  she 
had  put  forth  only  to  find  rest.  Solemn  supplications  on  the 
shore  of  the  sea  in  Holland  had  invoked  for  her,  at  her  depar 
ture,  the  blessings  of  Providence.  The  stars  which  guided  her 
were  the  unobscured  constellations  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 
Her  deck  was  the  altar  of  the  living  God.  Fervent  prayers  on 
bended  knees  mingled,  morning  and  evening,  with  the  voices 
of  ocean  and  the  sighing  of  the  wind  in  her  shrouds.  Every 
prosperous  breeze  which,  gently  swelling  her  sails,  helped  the 
Pilgrims  onward  in  their  course,  awoke  new  anthems  of  praise ; 
and  when  the  elements  were  wrought  into  fury,  neither  the  tem 
pest,  tossing  their  fragile  bark  like  a  feather,  nor  the  darkness  and 
howling  of  the  midnight  storm,  ever  disturbed  in  man  or  woman 
the  firm  and  settled  purpose  of  their  souls,  to  undergo  all  and  to  do 
all  that  the  meekest  patience,  the  boldest  resolution,  and  the  highest 
trust  in  God,  could  enable  human  beings  to  suffer  or  to  perform. 

Some  differences  may,  doubtless,  be  traced  at  this  day  between 
the  descendants  of  the  early  colonists  of  Virginia  and  those  of 
New  England,  owing  to  the  different  influences  and  different  cir 
cumstances  under  which  the  respective  settlements  were  made, 
but  only  enough  to  create  a  pleasing  variety  in'  the  midst  of  a 
general  family  resemblance. 

"  Facies  non  omnibus  una, 
Nee  diversa  tamen  ;  qualis  decet  sororum."  1 

But  the  habits,  sentiments,  and  objects  of  both  soon  became 
modified  by  local  Causes,  growing  out  of  their  condition  in  the 

1  "  The  features  are  not  the  same  in  all,  nor  yet  very  different:  they  are 
such  as  those  of  sisters  ought  to  be."  —  OVJD, 


58  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

New  World ;  and  as  this  condition  was  essentially  alike  in  both, 
and  as  both  at  once  adopted  the  same  general  rules  and  prin 
ciples  of  English  jurisprudence,  and  became  accustomed  to  the 
authority  of  representative  bodies,  these  differences  gradually 
diminished.  They  disappeared  by  the  progress  of  time  and  the 
influence  of  intercourse.  The  necessity  of  some  degree  of  union 
and  cooperation  to  defend  themselves  against  the  savage  tribes, 
tended  to  excite  in  them  mutual  respect  and  regard.  They 
fought  together  in  the  wars  against  France.1  The  great  and 
common  cause  of  the  Revolution  bound  them  to  one  another  by 
new  links  of  brotherhood ;  and  at  length  the  present  constitution 
of  government  united  them,  happily  and  gloriously,  to  form  the 
great  republic  of  the  world,  and  bound  up  their  interests  and  for 
tunes,  till  the  whole  earth  sees  that  there  is  now  for  them,  in  pres 
ent  possession  as  well  as  in  future  hope,  but  "  One  Country,  One 
Constitution,  and  One  Destiny." 

The  colonization  of  the  tropical  region,  and  the  whole  of  the 
southern  parts  of  the  continent,  by  Spain  and  Portugal,  was  con 
ducted  on  other  principles,  under  the  influence  of  other  motives, 
and  followed  by  far  different  consequences.  From  the  time  of 
its  discovery,  the  Spanish  Government  pushed  forward  its  settle 
ments  in  America,  not  only  with  vigor,  but  with  eagerness ;  so 
that,  long  before  the  first  permanent  English  settlement  had  been 
accomplished  in  what  is  now  the  United  States,  Spain  had  con 
quered  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chile,  and  stretched  her  power  over 
nearly  all  the  territory  she  ever  acquired  on  this  continent.  The 
rapidity  of  these  conquests  is  to  be  ascribed,  in  a  great  degree,  to 
the  eagerness,  not  to  say  the  rapacity,  of  those  numerous  bands 
of  adventurers  who  were  stimulated  by  individual  interests  and 
private  hopes  to  subdue  immense  regions,  and  take  possession  of 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Crown  of  Spain.  The  mines  of  gold 
and  silver  were  the  incitements  to  these  efforts ;  and  accordingly 

1  Known  in  American  history  as  King  William's  War  (1689-97),  Queen 
Anne's  War  (1702-13),  King  George's  War  (1744-48),  and  the  French  and 
Indian  War  (1754-63). 


'SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  59 

settlements  were  generally  made,  and  Spanish  authority  estab 
lished,  immediately  on  the  subjugation  of  territory,  that  the  native 
population  might  be  set  to  work  by  their  new  Spanish  masters  in 
the  mines.  From  these  facts,  the  love  of  gold  —  gold  not  pro 
duced  by  industry,  nor  accumulated  by  commerce,  but  gold  dug 
from  its  native  bed  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  that  earth 
ravished  from  its  rightful  possessors  by  every  possible  degree  of 
enormity,  cruelty,  and  crime  —  was  long  the  governing  passion  in 
Spanish  wars  and  Spanish  settlements  in  America.  Even  Colum 
bus  himself  did  not  wholly  escape  the  influence  of  this  base  motive. 
In  his  early  voyages  we  find  him  passing  from  island  to  island, 
inquiring  everywhere  for  gold,  as  if  God  had  opened  the  New 
World  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Old,  only  to  gratify  a  passion 
equally  senseless  and  sordid,  and  to  offer  up  millions  of  an  un 
offending  race  of  men  to  the  destruction  of  the  sword,  sharpened 
both  by  cruelty  and  rapacity.  And  yet  Columbus  was  far  above 
his  age  and  country;  enthusiastic,  indeed,  but  sober,  religious, 
and  magnanimous ;  born  to  great  things,  and  capable  of  high 
sentiments,  as  his  noble  discourse  before  Ferdinand  and  Isabella, 
as  well  as  the  whole  history  of  his  life,  shows.  Probably  he  sac 
rificed  much  to  the  known  sentiments  of  others,  and  addressed 
to  his  followers  motives  likely  to  influence  them.  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  evident  that  he  himself  looked  upon  the  world  which 
he  discovered  as  a  world  of  wealth  all  ready  to  be  seized  and 
enjoyed. 

The  conquerors  and  the  European  settlers  of  Spanish  America 
were  mainly  military  commanders  and  common  soldiers.  The 
monarchy  of  Spain  was  not  transferred  to  this  hemisphere  ;  but  it 
acted  in  it,  as  it  acted  at  home,  through  its  ordinary  means  and 
its  true  representative,  military  force.  The  robbery  and  destruc 
tion  of  the  native  race  was  the  achievement  of  standing  armies, 
in  the  right  of  the  King  and  by  his  authority  ;  fighting  in  his  name, 
for  the  aggrandizement  of  his  power  and  the  extension  of  his 
prerogatives,  with  military  ideas  under  arbitrary  maxims,  —  a 
portion  of  that  dreadful  instrumentality  by  which  a  perfect  des- 


60  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

potism  governs  a  people.  As  there  was  no  liberty  in  Spain,  how 
could  liberty  be  transmitted  to  Spanish  colonies  ? 

The  colonists  of  English  America  were  of  the  people,  and  a 
people  already  free.  They  were  of  the  middle,  industrious,  and 
already  prosperous  class,  the  inhabitants  of  commercial  and 
manufacturing  cities,  among  whom  liberty  first  revived  and  re 
spired  after  a  sleep  of  a  thousand  years  in  the  bosom  of  the  Dark 
Ages.  Spain  descended  on  the  New  World  in  the  armed  and 
terrible  image  of  her  monarchy  and  her  soldiery ;  England  ap 
proached  it  in  the  winning  and  popular  garb  of  personal  rights, 
public  protection,  and  civil  freedom.  England  transplanted  lib 
erty  to  America ;  Spain  transplanted  power.  England,  through 
the  agency  of  private  companies  and  the  efforts  of  individuals, 
colonized  this  part  of  North  America  by  industrious  individuals, 
making  their  own  way  in  the  wilderness,  defending  themselves 
against  the  savages,  recognizing  their  right  to  the  soil,  and  with 
a  general  honest  purpose  of  introducing  knowledge  as  well  as 
Christianity  among  them.  Spain  stooped  on  South  America  like 
a  vulture  on  its  prey.  Everything  was  force.  Territories  were 
acquired  by  fire  and  sword.  Cities  were  destroyed  by  fire  and 
sword.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  human  beings  fell  by  fire  and 
sword.  Even  conversion  to  Christianity  was  attempted  by  fire 
and  sword. 

Behold,  then,  fellow  citizens,  the  difference  resulting  from  the 
operation  of  the  two  principles  !  Here,  to-day,  on  the  summit 
of  Bunker  Hill,  and  at  the  foot  of  this  monument,  behold  the 
difference  !  I  would  that  the  fifty  thousand  voices  present  could 
proclaim  it  with  a  shout  which  should  be  heard  over  the  globe. 
Our  inheritance  was  of  liberty,  secured  and  regulated  by  law,  and 
enlightened  by  religion  and  knowledge  ;  that  of  South  America  was 
of  power,  —  stern,  unrelenting,  tyrannical,  military  power.  And 
now  look  to  the  consequences  of  the  two  principles  on  the  general 
and  aggregate  happiness  of  the  human  race.  Behold  the  results 
in  all  the  regions  conquered  by  Cortes  and  Pizarro,  and  the  con 
trasted  results  here.  I  suppose  the  territory  of  the  United  States 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  61 

may  amount  to  one  eighth,  or  one  tenth,  of  that  colonized  by 
Spain  on  this  continent ;  and  yet  .in  all  that  vast  region  there  are 
but  between  one  and  two  millions  of  people  of  European  color 
and  European  blood,  while  in  the  United  States  there  are  four 
teen  millions  who  rejoice  in  their  descent  from  the  people  of  the 
more  northern  part  of  Europe. 

But  we  may  follow  the  difference  in  the  original  principle  of 
colonization,  and  in  its  character  and  objects,  still  further.  We 
must  look  to  moral  and  intellectual  results ;  we  must  consider 
consequences,  not  only  as  they  show  themselves  in  hastening  or 
retarding  the  increase  of  population  and  the  supply  of  physical 
wants,  but  in  their  civilization,  improvement,  and  happiness.  We 
must  inquire  what  progress  has  been  made  in  the  true  science  of 
liberty,  in  the  knowledge  of  the  great  principles  of  self-govern 
ment,  and  in  the  progress  of  man  as  a  social,  moral,  and  religious 
being. 

I  would  not  willingly  say  anything  on  this  occasion  discour 
teous  to  the  new  governments  founded  on  the  demolition  of  the 
power  of  the  Spanish  monarchy.  They  are  yet  on  their  trial, 
and  I  hope  for  a  favorable  result.  But  truth,  sacred  truth,  and 
fidelity  to  the  cause  of  civil  liberty,  compel  me  to  say,  that 
hitherto  they  have  discovered  quite  too  much  of  the  spirit  of 
that  monarchy  from  which  they  separated  themselves.  Quite 
too  frequent  resort  is  made  to  military  force ;  and  quite  too 
much  of  the  substance  of  the  people  is  consumed  in  maintaining 
armies,  not  for  defense  against  foreign  aggression,  but  for  enfor 
cing  obedience  to  domestic  authority.  Standing  armies  are  the 
oppressive  instruments  for  governing  the  people  in  the  hands  of 
hereditary  and  arbitrary  monarchs.  A  military  republic,  a  gov 
ernment  founded  on  mock  elections  and  supported  only  by  the 
sword,  is  a  movement  indeed,  but  a  retrograde  and  disastrous 
movement,  from  the  regular  and  old-fashioned  monarchical  sys 
tems.  If  men  would  enjoy  the  blessings  of  republican  govern 
ment,  they  must  govern  themselves  by  reason,  by  mutual  counsel 
and  consultation,  by  a  sense  and  feeling  of  general  interest, 


62  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

by  the  acquiescence  of  the  minority  in  the  will  of  the  majority, 
properly  expressed ;  and,  above  all,  the  .military  must  be  kept, 
according  to  the  language  of  our  Bill  of  Rights,  in  strict  subor 
dination  to  the  civil  authority.  Wherever  this  lesson  is  not  both 
learned  and  practiced,  there  can  be  no  political  freedom.  Ab 
surd,  preposterous  is  it,  a  scoff  and  a  satire  on  free  forms  of  con 
stitutional  liberty,  for  frames  of  government  to  be  prescribed  by 
military  leaders,  and  the  right  of  suffrage  to  be  exercised  at  the 
point  of  the  sword. 

Making  all  allowance  for  situation  and  climate,  it  cannot  be 
doubted  by  intelligent  minds  that  the  difference  now  existing 
between  North  and  South  America  is  justly  attributable,  in  a 
great  degree,  to  political  institutions  in  the  Old  World  and  in  the 
New.  And  how  broad  that  difference  is  !  Suppose  an  assembly, 
in  one  of  the  valleys  or  on  the  side  of  one  of  the  mountains  of 
the  southern  half  of  the  hemisphere,  to  be  held  this  day  in  the 
neighborhood  of  a  large  city  —  what  would  be  the  scene  pre 
sented  ?  Yonder  is  a  volcano,  flaming  and  smoking,  but  shed 
ding  no  light,  moral  or  intellectual.  At  its  foot  is  the  mine, 
sometimes  yielding,  perhaps,  large  gains  to  capital,  but  in  which 
labor  is  destined  to  eternal  and  unrequited  toil,  and  followed  only 
by  penury  and  beggary.  The  city  is  filled  with  armed  men  ;  not 
a  free  people,  armed  and  coming  forth  voluntarily  to  rejoice  in  a 
public  festivity,  but  .hireling  troops,  supported  by  forced  loans, 
excessive  impositions  on  commerce,  or  taxes  wrung  from  a  half- 
fed  and  a  half-clothed  population.  For  the  great  there  are  palaces 
covered  with  gold ;  for  the  poor  there  are  hovels  of  the  meanest 
sort.  There  is  an  ecclesiastical  hierarchy,  enjoying  the  wealth  of 
princes ;  but  there  are  no  means  of  education  for  the  people.  Do 
public  improvements  favor  intercourse  between  place  and  place? 
So  far  from  this,  the  traveler  cannot  pass  from  town  to  town 
without  danger,  every  mile,  of  robbery  and  assassination.  I 
would  not  overcharge  or  exaggerate  this  picture ;  but  its  princi 
pal  features  are  all  too  truly  sketched. 

And  how  does  it  contrast  with  the  scene  now  actually  before 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  63 

us  ?  Look  round  upon  these  fields ;  they  are  verdant  and  beau 
tiful,  well  cultivated,  and  at  this  moment  loaded  with  the  riches 
of  the  early  harvest.  The  hands  which  till  them  are  those  of  the 
free  owners  of  the  soil,  enjoying  equal  rights,  and  protected  by 
law  from  oppression  and  tyranny.  Look  to  the  thousand  vessels 
in  our  sight,  filling  the  harbor,  or  covering  the  neighboring  sea. 
They  are  the  vehicles  of  a  profitable  commerce,  carried  on  by 
men  who  know  that  the  profits  of  their  hardy  enterprise,  when 
they  make  them,  are  their  own  ;  and  this  commerce  is  encouraged 
and  regulated  by  wise  laws,  and  defended,  when  need  be,  by  the 
valor  and  patriotism  of  the  country.  Look  to  that  fair  city,  the 
abode  of  so  much  diffused  wealth,  so  much  general  happiness 
and  comfort,  so  much  personal  independence,  and  so  much  gen 
eral  knowledge,  and  not  undistinguished,  I  may  be  permitted  to 
add,  for  hospitality  and  social  refinement.  She  fears  no  forced 
contributions,  no  siege  or  sacking  from  military  leaders  of  rival 
factions.  The  hundred  temples  in  which  her  citizens  worship 
God  are  in  no  danger  of  sacrilege.  The  regular  administration 
of  the  laws  encounters  no  obstacle.  The  long  processions  of 
children  and  youth  which  you  see  this  day  issuing  by  thousands 
from  her  free  schools,  prove  the  care  arid  anxiety  with  which  a 
popular  government  provides  for  the  education  and  morals  of 
the  people.  Everywhere  there  is  order ;  everywhere  there  is 
security.  Everywhere  the  law  reaches  to  the  highest,  and  reaches 
to  the  lowest,  to  protect  all  in  their  rights,  and  to  restrain  all  from 
wrong ;  and  over  all  hovers  Liberty,  —  that  Liberty  for  which  our 
fathers  fought  and  fell  on  this  very  spot,  —  with  her  eye  ever 
watchful  and  her  eagle  wing  ever  wide  outspread. 

The  colonies  of  Spain,  from  their  origin  to  their  end,  were  sub 
ject  to  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  mother  country.  Their 
government,  as  well  as  their  commerce,  was  a  strict  home  monop 
oly.  If  we  add  to  this  the  established  usage  of  filling  important 
posts  in  the  administration  of  the  colonies  exclusively  by  natives 
of  Old  Spain,  thus  cutting  off  forever  all  hopes  of  honorable  pre 
ferment  from  every  man  born  in  the  Western  hemisphere,  causes 


64  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

enough  rise  up  before  us  at  once  to  account  fully  for  the  subse 
quent  history  and  character  of  these  provinces.  The  viceroys 
and  provincial  governors  of  Spain  were  never  at  home  in  their 
governments  in  America.  They  did  not  feel  that  they  were  of 
the  people  whom  they  governed.  Their  official  character  and 
employment  have  a  good  deal  of  resemblance  to  those  of  the 
proconsuls  of  Rome  in  Asia,  Sicily,  and  Gaul,  but  obviously  no 
resemblance  to  those  of  Carver  and  Winthrop,  and  very  little  to 
those  of  the  governors  of  Virginia  after  that  Colony  had  estab 
lished  a  popular  House  of  Burgesses. 

The  English  colonists  in  America,  generally  speaking,  were 
men  who  were  seeking  new  homes  in  a  new.  world.  They  brought 
with  them  their  families  and  all  that  was  most  dear  to  them.  This 
was  especially  the  case  with  the  colonists  of  Plymouth  and  Mas 
sachusetts.  Many  of  them  were  educated  men,  and  all  possessed 
their  full  share,  according  to  their  social  condition,  of  the  knowl 
edge  and  attainments  of  that  age.  The  distinctive  characteristic 
of  their  settlement  is  the  introduction  of  the  civilization  of  Europe 
into  a  wilderness,  without  bringing  with  it  the  political  institutions 
of  Europe.  The  arts,  sciences,  and  literature  of  England  came 
over  with  the  settlers.  That  great  portion  of  the  common  law 
which  regulates  the  social  and  personal  relations  and  conduct  of 
men  came  also.  The  jury  came;  the  habeas  corpus  came;  the 
testamentary  power  came ;  and  the  law  of  inheritance  and  de 
scent  came  also,  except  that  part  of  it  which  recognizes  the  rights 
of  primogeniture,1  which  either  did  not  come  at  all,  or  soon  gave 
way  to  the  rule  of  equal  partition  of  estates  among  children.  But 
the  monarchy  did  not  come,  nor  the  aristocracy,  nor  the  church, 
as  an  estate  of  the  realm.  Political  institutions  were  to  be 
framed  anew,  such  a£  should  be  adapted  to  the  state  of  things. 
But  it  could  not  be  doubtful  what  should  be  the  nature  and  char 
acter  of  these  institutions.  A  general  social  equality  prevailed 
among  the  settlers,  and  an  equality  of  political  rights  seemed  the 

1  "Rights  of  primogeniture,"  i.e.,  the  law  providing  that  the  eldest  son 
should  inherit  the  entire  estate  of  his  father. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  65 

natural,  if  not  the  necessary  consequence.  After  forty  years  of 
revolution,  violence,  and  war,  the  people  of  France  have  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  fundamental  instrument  of  their  government, 
as  the  great  boon  obtained  by  all  their  sufferings  and  sacrifices, 
the  declaration  that  all  Frenchmen  are  equal  before  the  law. 
What  France  has  reached  only  by  the  expenditure  of  so  much 
blood  and  treasure,  and  the  perpetration  of  so  much  crime,  the 
English  colonists  obtained  by  simply  changing  their  place,  carry 
ing  with  them  the  intellectual  and  moral  culture  of  Europe,  and 
the  personal  and  social  relations  to  which  they  were  accustomed, 
but  leaving  behind  their  political  institutions.  It  has  been  said 
with  much  vivacity,  that  the  felicity  of  the  American  colonists 
consisted  in  their  escape  from  the  past.  This  is  true  so  far  as 
respects  political  establishments,  but  no  farther.  They  brought 
with  them  a  full  portion  of  all  the  riches  of  the  past,  in  science, 
in  art,  in  morals,  religion,  and  literature.  The  Bible  came  with 
them.  And  it  is  not  to  be  doubted,  that  to  the  free  and  univer 
sal  reading  of  the  Bible,  in  that  age,  men  were  much  indebted 
for  right  views  of  civil  liberty.  The  Bible  is  a  book  of  faith,  and 
a  book  of  doctrine,  and  a  book  of  morals,  and  a  book  of  reli 
gion,  of  especial  revelation  from  God  ;  but  it  is  also  a  book  wrhich 
teaches  man  his  own  individual  responsibility,  his  own  dignity, 
and  his  equality  with  his  fellow  man. 

Bacon  and  Locke,  and  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  also  came 
with  the  colonists.  It  was  the  object  of  the  first  settlers  to  form 
new  political  systems  ;  but  all  that  belonged  to  cultivated  man,  to 
family,  to  neighborhood,  to  social  relations,  accompanied  them. 
In  the  Doric l  phrase  of  one  of  our  own  historians,  "  They  came  to 
settle  on  bare  creation ;  "  but  their  settlement  in  the  wilderness, 
nevertheless,  was  not  a  lodgment  of  nomadic  tribes,  a  mere  rest 
ing  place  of  roaming  savages.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  per 
manent  community,  the  fixed  residence  of  cultivated  men.  Not 
only  was  English  literature  read,  but  English,  good  English,  was 
spoken  and  written,  before  the  ax  had  made  way  to  let  in  the 

1  Plain,  unadorned. 


66  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

sun  upon  the  habitations  and  fields  of  Plymouth  and  Massachu 
setts.  And,  whatever  may  be  said  to  the  contrary,  a  correct  use 
of  the  English  language  is,  at  this  day,  more  general  throughout 
the  United  States  than  it  is  throughout  England  herself. 

But  another  grand  characteristic  is,  that  in  the  English  Colonies 
political  affairs  were  left  to  be  managed  by  the  colonists  them 
selves.  This  is  another  fact  wholly  distinguishing  them  in  char 
acter,  as  it  has  distinguished  them  in  fortune,  from  the  colonists 
of  Spain.  Here  lies  the  foundation  of  that  experience  in  self- 
government  which  has  preserved  order  and  security  and  regu 
larity  amidst  the  play  of  popular  institutions.  Home  govern 
ment  was  the  secret  of  the  prosperity  of  the  North-American 
settlements.  The  more  distinguished  of  the  New-England  colo 
nists,  with  a  most  remarkable  sagacity  and  a  long-sighted  reach 
into  futurity,  refused  to  come  to  America  unless  they  could  bring 
with  them  charters  providing  for  the  administration  of  their 
affairs  in  this  country.  They  saw  from  the  first  the  evils  of 
being  governed  in  the  New  World  by  a  power  fixed  in  the  Old. 
Acknowledging  the  general  superiority  of  the  Crown,  they  still 
insisted  on  the  right  of  passing  local  laws,  and  of  local  adminis 
tration.  And  history  teaches  us  the  justice  and  the  value  of  this 
determination  in  the  example  of  Virginia.  The  early  attempts 
to  settle  that  Colony  failed,  sometimes  with  the  most  melancholy 
and  fatal  consequences,  from  want  of  knowledge,  care,  and  atten 
tion  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  the  charge  of  their  affairs  in 
England ;  and  it  was  only  after  the  issuing  of  the  third  charter 
that  its  prosperity  fairly  commenced.  The  cause  was,  that  by 
that  third  charter  the  people  of  Virginia,  for  by  this  time  they 
deserved  to  be  so  called,  were  allowed  to  constitute  and  establish 
the  first  popular  representative  assembly  which  ever  convened 
on  this  continent, — the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses.1 

The  great  elements,  then,  of  the  American  system  of  govern 
ment,  originally  introduced  by  the  colonists,  and  which  were  early 

1  The  first  House  of  Burgesses  in  Virginia  was  convened  by  Gov.  Yeard- 
ley  in  1619,  thirteen  years  after  the  landing  at  Jamestown. 


SECOND  BUNKER   HILL  ADDRESS.  67 

in  operation,  and  ready  to  be  developed  more  and  more  as  the 
progress  of  events  should  justify  or  demand,  were :  — 

Escape  from  the  existing  political  systems  of  Europe,  includ 
ing  its  religious  hierarchies,1  but  the  continued  possession  and 
enjoyment  of  its  science  and  arts,  its  literature  and  its  manners ; 

Home  government,  or  the  power  of  making  in  the  Colony  the 
municipal  laws  which  were  to  govern  it ; 

Equality  of  rights ; 

Representative  assemblies,  or  forms  of  government  founded  on 
popular  elections. 

Few  topics  are  more  inviting,  or  more  fit  for  philosophical 
discussion,  than  the  effect  on  the  happiness  of  mankind  of  in 
stitutions  founded  upon  these  principles ;  or,  in  other  words,  the 
influence  of  the  New  World  upon  the  Old. 

Her  obligations  to  Europe  for  science  and  art,  laws,  literature, 
and  manners,  America  acknowledges  as  she  ought,  with  respect 
and  gratitude.  The  people  of  the  United  States,  descendants  of 
the  English  stock,  grateful  for  the  treasures  of  knowledge  derived 
from  their  English  ancestors,  admit  also,  with  thanks  and  filial 
regard,  that  among  those  ancestors,  under  the  culture  of  Hamp- 
den  and  Sidney 2  and  other  assiduous  friends,  that  seed  of  popu 
lar  liberty  first  germinated,  which  on  our  soil  has  shot  up  to  its 
full  height,  until  its  branches  overshadow  all  the  land. 

But  America  has  not  failed  to  make  returns.  If  she  has  not 
wholly  canceled  the  obligation,  or  equaled  it  by  others  of  like 
weight,  she  has  at  least  made  respectable  advances  towards  re 
paying  the  debt.  And  she  admits  that,  standing  in  the  midst 
of  civilized  nations  and  in  a  civilized  age,  a  nation  among  na 
tions,  there  is  a  high  part  which  she  is  expected  to  act  for  the 
general  advancement  of  human  interests  and  human  welfare. 

1  Governments  by  the  priesthood. 

2  John  Hampden  (1594-1643)  and  Algernon  Sidney  (1622-83),  English 
patriots  distinguished  for  their  fearless  advocacy  of  the  rights  of  the  people 
in  opposition  to  kingly  tyranny. 


68  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

American  mines  have  filled  the  mints  of  Europe  with  the  pre 
cious  metals.  The  productions  of  the  American  soil  and  climate 
have  poured  out  their  abundance  of  luxuries  for  the  tables  of  the 
rich  and  of  necessaries  for  the  sustenance  of  the  poor.  Birds 
and  animals  of  beauty  and  value  have  been  added  to  the  Euro 
pean  stocks ;  and  transplantations  from  the  unequaled  riches  of 
our  forests  have  mingled  themselves  profusely  with  the  elms  and 
ashes  and  druidical  oaks  of  England. 

America  has  made  contributions  to  Europe  far  more  impor 
tant.  Who  can  estimate  the  amount,  or  the  value,  of  the  aug 
mentation  of  the  commerce  of  tlie  world  that  has  resulted  from 
America?  Who  can  imagine  to  himself  what  would  now  be  the 
shock  to  the  P^astern  Continent,  if  the  Atlantic  were  no  longer 
traversable,  or  if  there  were  no  longer  American  productions  or 
American  markets  ? 

But  America  exercises  influences,  or  holds  out  examples,  for 
the  consideration  of  the  Old  World,  of  a  much  higher,  because 
they  are  of  a  moral  and  political  character. 

America  has  furnished  to  Europe  proof  of  the  fact  that  popu 
lar  institutions,  founded  on  equality  and  the  principle  of  repre 
sentation,  are  capable  of  maintaining  governments  able  to  secure 
the  rights  of  person,  property,  and  reputation. 

America  has  proved  that  it  is  practicable  to  elevate  the  mass 
of  mankind,  —  that  portion  which  in  Europe  is  called  the  laboring, 
or  lower  class,  —  to  raise  them  to  self-respect,  to  make  them  com 
petent  to  act  a  part  in  the  great  right  and  great  duty  of  self-gov 
ernment  ;  and  she  has  proved  that  this  may  be  done  by  education 
and  the  diffusion  of  knowledge.  She  holds  out  an  example,  a 
thousand  times  more  encouraging  than  ever  was  presented  be 
fore,  to  those  nine  tenths  of  the  human  race  who  are  born  with 
out  hereditary  fortune  or  hereditary  rank. 

America  has  furnished  to  the  world  the  character  of  Washing 
ton.  Arid,  if  our  American  institutions  had  done  nothing  else, 
that  alone  would  have  entitled  them  to  the  respect  of  mankind. 

Washington  !      "  First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  69 

hearts  of  his  countrymen  !  "  l  Washington  is  all  our  own  !  The 
enthusiastic  veneration  and  regard  in  which  the  people  of  the 
United  States  hold  him  prove  them  to  be  worthy  of  such  a 
countryman ;  while  his  reputation  abroad  reflects  the  highest 
honor  on  his  country.  I  would  cheerfully  put  the  question  to 
day  to  the  intelligence  of  Europe  and  the  world,  What  character 
of  the  century,  upon  the  whole,  stands  out  in  the  relief  of  history, 
most  pure,  most  respectable,  most  sublime  ?  and  I  doubt  not, 
that,  by  a  suffrage  approaching  to  unanimity,  the  answer  would 
be,  Washington  ! 

The  structure  now  standing  before  us,  by  its  uprightness,  its 
solidity,  its  durability,  is  no  unfit  emblem  of  his  character.  His 
public  virtues  and  public  principles  were  as  firm  as  the  earth  on 
which  it  stands ;  his  personal  motives,  as  pure  as  the  serene 
heaven  in  which  its  summit  is  lost.  But,  indeed,  though  a  fit, 
it  is  an  inadequate  emblem.  Towering  high  above  the  column 
which  our  hands  have  builded,  beheld,  not  by  the  inhabitants  of 
a  single  city  or  a  single  State,  but  by  all  the  families  of  man, 
ascends  the  colossal  grandeur  of  the  character  and  life  of  Wash 
ington.  In  all  the  constituents  of  the  one,  in  all  the  acts  of  the 
other,  in  all  its  titles  to  immortal  love,  admiration,  and  renown, 
it  is  an  American  production.  It  is  the  embodiment  and  vindi 
cation  of  our  Transatlantic  liberty.  Born  upon  our  soil,  of  par 
ents  also  born  upon  it ;  never  for  a  moment  having  had  sight  of 
the  Old  World ;  instructed,  according  to  the  modes  of  his  time, 
only  in  the  spare,  plain,  but  wholesome  elementary  knowledge 
which  our  institutions  provide  for  the  children  of  the  people ; 
growing  up  beneath  and  penetrated  by  the  genuine  influences  of 
American  society;  living,  from  infancy  to  manhood  and  age, 
amidst  our  expanding  but  not  luxurious  civilization  ;  partaking 
in  our  great  destiny  of  labor,  our  long  contest  with  unreclaimed 
nature  and  uncivilized  man,  our  agony  of  glory,  the  war  of  Inde 
pendence,  our  great  victory  of  peace,  the  formation  of  the  Union 

1  These  words  were  first  used  by  Henry  Lee  in  his  oration  on  the  death 
of  Washington. 


70  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

and  the  establishment   of  the  Constitution, — he  is  all,  all  our 
own  !      Washington  is  ours.     That  crowded  and  glorious  life,  — 

"  Where  multitudes  of  virtues  passed  along, 
Each  pressing  foremost,  in  the  mighty  throng 
Ambitious  to  be  seen,  then  making  room 
For  greater  multitudes  that  were  to  come,"  — 

that  life  was  the  life  of  an  American  citizen. 

I  claim  him  for  America.  In  all  the  perils,  in  every  darkened 
moment  of  the  state,  in  the  midst  of  the  reproaches  of  enemies 
and  the  misgivings  of  friends,  I  turn  to  that  transcendent  name 
for  courage  and  for  consolation.  To  him  who  denies  or  doubts 
whether  our  fervid  liberty  can  be  combined  with  law,  with  order, 
with  the  security  of  property,  with  the  pursuits  and  advancement 
of  happiness ;  to  him  who  denies  that  our  forms  of  government 
are  capable  of  producing  exaltation  of  soul  and  the  passion  of 
true  glory  ;  to  him  who  denies  that  we  have  contributed  anything 
to  the  stock  of  great  lessons  and  great  examples,  —  to  all  these  I 
reply  by  pointing  to  Washington. 

And  now,  friends  and  fellow  citizens,  it  is  time  to  bring  this 
discourse  to  a  close. 

We  have  indulged  in  gratifying  recollections  of  the  past,  in  the 
prosperity  and  pleasures  of  the  present,  and  in  high  hopes  for  the 
future.  But  let  us  remember  that  we  have  duties  and  obligations 
to  perform  corresponding  to  the  blessings  which  we  enjoy.  Lei 
us  remember  the  trust,  the  sacred  trust,  attaching  to  the  rich  in 
heritance  which  we  have  received  from  our  fathers.  Let  us  feel 
our  personal  responsibility,  to  the  full  extent  of  our  power  and 
influence,  for  the  preservation  of  the  principles  of  civil  and  reli 
gious  liberty.  And  let  us  remember  that  it  is  only  religion  and 
morals  and  knowledge,  that  can  make  men  respectable 1  and 
happy  under  any  form  of  government.  Let  us  hold  fast  the 
great  truth,  that  communities  are  responsible,  as  well  as  individ- 

1  See  note,  p.  50. 


SECOND  BUNKER  HILL  ADDRESS.  71 

uals ;  that  no  government  is  respectable  1  which  is  not  just ;  that 
without  unspotted  purity  of  public  faith,  without  sacred  public 
principle,  fidelity,  and  honor,  no  mere  forms  of  government,  no 
machinery  of  laws,  can  give  dignity  to  political  society.  In  our 
day  and  generation  let  us  seek  to  raise  and  improve  the  moral 
sentiment,  so  that  we  may  look,  not  for  a  degraded,  but  for  an 
elevated  and  improved  future.  And  when  both  we  and  our 
children  shall  have  been  consigned  to  the  house  appointed  for 
all  living,  may  love  of  country  and  pride  of  country  glow  with 
equal  fervor  among  those  to  whom  our  names  and  our  blood 
shall  have  descended  !  And  then,  when  honored  and  decrepit 
age  shall  lean  against  the  base  of  this  monument,  and  troops  of 
ingenuous  youth  shall  be  gathered  round  it,  and  when  the  one 
shall  speak  to  the  other  of  its  objects,  the  purposes  of  its  con 
struction,  and  the  great  and  glorious  events  with  which  it  is  con 
nected,  there  shall  rise  from  every  youthful  breast  the  ejaculation, 
''Thank  God,  I  —  I  also — AM  AN  AMERICAN  !" 

1  See  note,  p.  50. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   WASHINGTON. 

A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    AT    A    PUBLIC    DINNER    IN    THE    CITY    OF 

WASHINGTON,    ON    THE     22D    OF    FEBRUARY,     1832,    THE 

CENTENNIAL    ANNIVERSARY    OF    WASHINGTON'S 

BIRTHDAY. 


T  RISE,  gentlemen,  to  propose  to  you  the  name  of  that  great 
L  man  in  commemoration  of  whose  birth,  and  in  honor  of 
whose  character  and  services,  we  are  here  assembled. 

I  am  sure  that   I   express  a  sentiment  common  to  every  one 
present,  when  I  say  that  there  is  something  more  than  ordinarily 
solemn  and  affecting  in  this  occasion. 

^  We  are  met  to  testify  our  regard  for  him  whose  name  is  inti 
mately  blended  with  whatever  belongs  most  essentially  to  the 
prosperity,  the  liberty,  the  free  institutions,  and  the  renown  of  our 
country.  That  name  was  of  power  to  rally  a  nation  in  the  hour 
of  thick-thronging  public  disasters  and  calamities ;  that  name 
shone,  amid  the  storm  of  war,  a  beacon  light,  to  cheer  and  guide 
the  country's  friends ;  it  flamed,  too,  like  a  meteor,  to  repel  her 
foes.  That  name,  in  the  days  of  peace,  was  a  loadstone,  attract 
ing  to  itself  a  whole  people's  confidence,  a  whole  people's  love^ 
and  the  whole  world's  respect.  That  name,  descending  with  all 
time,  spreading  over  the  whole  earth,  and  uttered  in  all  the  lan 
guages  belonging  to  the  tribes  and  races  of  men,  will  forever  be 
pronounced  with  affectionate  gratitude  by  every  one  in  whose 
breast  there  shall  arise  an  aspiration  for  human  rights  and  human 
liberty. 

We  perform  this  grateful  duty,  gentlemen,  at  the  expiration  of 

72 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   WASHINGTON.  73 

a  hundred  years  from  his  birth,  near  the  place,  so  cherished  and 
beloved  by  him,  where  his  dust  now  reposes,  and  in  the  capital 
which  bears  his  own  immortal  name. 

x' 

J   All  experience   evinces   that   human   sentiments   are   strongly 

influenced  by  associations.     The  recurrence  of  anniversaries,  or 

of  longer  periods  of  time,  naturally  freshens  the  recollection,  and 
deepens  the  impression,  of  events  with  which  they  are  historical 
ly  connected.  Renowned  places,  also,  have  a  power  to  awaken 
feeling,  which  all  acknowledge.  No  American  can  pass  by  the 
fields  of  Bunker  Hill,  Monmouth,  and  Camden,  as  if  they  were_^ 
ordinary  spots  on  the  earth's  surface.  Whoever  visits  them  feels 
the  sentiment  of  love  of  country  kindling  anew,  as  if  the  spirit 
that  belonged  to  the  transactions  which  have  rendered  these 
places  distinguished,  still  hovered  round,  with  power  to  move  and 
excite  all  who  in  future  time  may  approach  them. 
/But  neither  of  these  sources  of  emotion  equals  the  power  with 
which  great  moral  examples  affect  the  mind.  When  sublime 
virtues  cease  to  be  abstractions,  when  they  become  embodied  in 
human  character,  and  exemplified  in  human  conduct,  we  should 
be  false  to  our  own  nature  if  we  did  not  indulge  in  the  spontane-- 
ous  effusions  of  our  gratitude  and  our  admiration.  A  true  lover 
of  the  virtue  of  patriotism  delights  to  contemplate  its  purest 
models ;  and  that  love  of  country  may  be  well  suspected  which 
affects  to  soar  so  high  into  the  regions  of  sentiment  as  to  be  lost 
and  absorbed  in  the  abstract  feeling,  and  becomes  too  elevated 
or  too  refined  to  glow  with  fervor  in  the  commendation  or  the 
love  of  individual  benefactors.  All  this  is  unnatural.  It  is  as  if 
one  should  be  so  enthusiastic  a  lover  of  poetry  as  to  care  noth 
ing  for  Homer  or  Milton ;  so  passionately  attached  to  eloquence 
as  to  be  indifferent  to  Tully l  and  Chatham ;  2  or  such  a  devotee 
to  the  arts,  in  such  an  ecstasy  with  the  elements  of  beauty,  pro 
portion,  and  expression,  as  to  regard  the  masterpieces  of  Raphael 3 

1  Marcus  Tullius  Cicero,  the  most  famous  Roman  orator  (106-43  B.C.). 

2  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  the  "  Great  Commoner^'  (1708-78). 

3  Raphael,  or  Raffaelle  Santi  d'Urbino,  Italian  painter  (1483-1520). 


74  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

and  Michael  Angelo  1  with  coldness  or  contempt.  We  may  be 
assured,  gentlemen,  that1  he  who  really  loves  the  thing  itself, 
loves  its  finest  exhibitions.  A  true  friend  of  his  country  loves  her 
friends  and  benefactors,  and  thinks  it  no  degradation  to  commend 
and  commemorate  them.  The  voluntary  outpouring  of  the  public 
feeling  made  to-day,  from  the  North  to  the  South,  and  from  the 
East  to  the  West,  proves  this  sentiment  to  be  both  just  and  nat 
ural.  In  the  cities  and  in  the  villages,  in  the  public  temples  and 
in  the  family  circles,  among  all  ages  and  sexes,  gladdened  voices 
to-day  bespeak  grateful  hearts  and  a  freshened  recollection  ^f 
the  virtues  of  the  Father  of  his  Country.  And  it  will  be  so  in 
all  time  to  come,  so  long  as  public  virtue  is  itself  an  object  of 
regard.  The  ingenuous  youth  of  America  will  hold  up  to  them 
selves  the  bright  model  of  Washington's  example,  and  study  to 
be  what  they  behold ;  they  will  contemplate  his  character  till  aU 
its  virtues  spread  out  and  display  themselves  to  their  delighted 
vision,  as  the  earliest  astronomers,  the  shepherds  on  the  plains 
of  Babylon,  gazed  at  the  stars  till  they  saw  them  form  into 
clusters  and  constellations,  overpowering  at  length  the  eyes  of 
the  beholders  with  the  united  blaze  of  a  thousand  lights. 

/  Gentlemen,  we  are  at  a  point  of  a  century  from  the  birth  of 
Washington  ;  and  what  a  century  it  has  been  !  During  its  course, 
the  human  mind  has  seemed  to  proceed  with  a  sort  of  geo 
metric  velocity,  accomplishing  for  human  intelligence  and  human 
freedom  more  than  had  been  done  in  fives  or  tens  of  centuries_ 
preceding.  Washington  stands  at  the  commencement  of  a  new 
era,  as  well  as  at  the  head  of  the  New  World.  A  century  from  the 
birth  of  Washington  has  changed  the  world.  The  country  of 
Washington  has  been  the  theater  on  which  a  great  part  of  that 
change  has  been  wrought,  and  Washington  himself  a  principal 
agent  by  which  it  has  been  accomplished.  His  age  and  his 
country  are  equally  full  of  wonders ;  and'  of  both  he  is  the  chief. 
£i/  If  the  poetical  prediction  uttered  a  few  years  before  his  birth 
be  true ;  if  indeed  it  be  designed  by  Providence  that  the  grandest 

1  Michael  Angelo  BvOnwroti,  Italian  painter  and  sculptor  (1485-1 564), 


„ 


THE   CHARACTER    OF   WASHINGTON.  75 

exhibition  of  human  character  and  human  affairs  shall  be  made 
on  this  theater  of  the  Western  world ;  if  it  be  true  that 

"  The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day : 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  the  last,"  1^ 

how  could  this  imposing,  swelling,  final  scene  be  appropriately 
opened,  how  could  its  intense  interest  be  adequately  sustained,  but 
by  the  introduction  of  just  such  a  character  as  our  Washington  ? 
Washington  had  attained  his  manhood  when  that  spark  of  lib- 
rty  was  struck  out  in  his  own  country  which  has  since  kindled^ 
into  a  flame,  and  shot  its  beams  over  the  earth.  In  the  flow  of 
a  century  from  his  birth,  the  world  has  changed  in  science,  in 
arts,  in  the  extent  of  commerce,  in  the  improvement  of  naviga 
tion,  and  in  all  that  relates  to  the  civilization  of  man.  But  it  is 
the  spirit  of  human  freedom,  the  new  elevation  of  individual^ 
man,  in  his  moral,  social,  and  political  character,  leading  the 
whole  long  train  of  other  improvements,  which  has  most  remark 
ably  distinguished  the  era.  Society,  in  this  century,  has  not  made 
its  progress,  like  Chinese  skill,  by  a  greater  acuteness  of  ingenuity 
in  trifles;  it  has  not  merely  lashed  itself  to  an  increased  speed... 
round  the  old  circles  of  thought  and  action ;  but  it^TTa^  assumed 
a  new  character ;  it  has  raised  itself  from  beneath  governments  to 
a  participation  in  governments ;  it  has  mixed  moral  and  political 
objects  with  the  daily  pursuits  of  individual  men ;  and,  with  a 
freedom  and  strength  before  altogether  unknown,  it  has  applied^ 
to  these  objects  the  whole  power  of  the  human  understanding. 
It  has  been  the  era,  in  short,  when  the  social  principle  has  tri 
umphed  over  the  feudal  principle ;  when  society  has  maintained 
its  rights  against  military  power,  and  established,  on  foundations 
never  hereafter  to  be  shaken,  its  competency  to  govern  itself) 

1  From  a  poem  entitled  On  the  Prospect  of  Planting  Arts  and  Learn 
ing  in  America,  written  by  Bishop  Berkeley  in  1724.     The  first  line  of  the 

stanza  is, 

11  Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way." 


7 6  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

It  was  the  extraordinary  fortune  of  Washington,  that  having 
been  intrusted  in  Revolutionary  times  with  the  supreme  military 
command,  and  having  fulfilled  that  trust  with  equal  renown  for 
wisdom  and  for  valor,  he  should  be  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
first  government  in  which  an  attempt  was  to  be  made  on  a  large 
scale  to  rear  the  fabric  of  social  order  on  the  basis  of  a  written 
constitution  and  of  a  pure  representative  principle.  A  govern 
ment  was  to  be  established,  without  a  throne,  without  an  aristoc 
racy,  without  castes,  orders,  or  privileges ;  and  this  government, 
instead  of  being  a  democracy,  existing  and  acting  within  the 
walls  of  a  single  city,  was  to  be  extended  over  a  vast  country,  of 
different  climates,  interests,  and  habits,  and  of  various  commun 
ions  of  our  common  Christian  faith.  The  experiment  certainly 
was  entirely  new.  A  popular  government  of  this  extent,  it  was 
evident,  could  be  framed  only  by  carrying  into  full  effect  the 
principle  of  representation  or  of  delegated  power ;  and  the  world 
was  to  see  whether  society  could,  by  the  strength  of  this  princi 
ple,  maintain  its  own  peace  and  good  government,  carry  forward 
its  own  great  interests,  and  conduct  itself  to  political  renown  and 
glory.  By  the  benignity  of  Providence,  this  experiment,  so  full- 
of  interest  to  us  and  to  our  posterity  forever,  so  full  of  interest, 
indeed,  to  the  world  in  its  present  generation  and  in  all  its  gen 
erations  to  come,  was  suffered  to  commence  under  the  guidance 
of  Washington.  Destined  for  this  high  career,  he  was  fitted  for 
it  by  wisdom,  by  virtue,  by  patriotism,  by  discretion,  by  whatever^ 
can  inspire  confidence  in  man  towards  man.  In  entering  on  the 
untried  scenes,  early  disappointment  and  the  premature  extinc 
tion  of  all  hope  of  success  would  have  been  certain,  had  it  not 
been  that  there  did  exist  throughout  the  country,  in  a  most  ex 
traordinary  degree,  an  unwavering  trust  in  him  who  stood  at  the 
helm. 

.M  I  remarked,  gentlemen,  that  the  whole  world  was  and  is  in- 
tierested  in  the  result  of  this  experiment.  And  is  it  net  se  ?  D* 
we  deceive  ourselves,  or  is  it  true  that  at  this  mement  the  career 
which  this  government  is  running  is  among  the  most  attractive 


THE    CHARACTER   OF   WASHINGTON.  77 

objects  to  the  civilized  world  ?  Do  we  deceive  ourselves,  or  is  it 
true  that  at  this  moment  that  love  of  liberty,  and  that  understand 
ing  of  its  true  principles,  which  are  flying  over  the  whole  earth 
as  on  the  wings  of  all  the  winds,  are  really  and  truly  of  American 
origin  ? 

/-JAt  the  period  of  the  birth  of  Washington,  there  existed  in 
Europe  no  political  liberty  in  large  communities,  except  in  the 
provinces  of  Holland,  and  except  that  England  herself  had  set  a 
great  example,  so  far  as  it  went,  by  her  glorious  Revolution  of 
1688.  Everywhere  else  despotic  power  was  predominant,  and 
the  feudal  or  military  principle  held  the  mass  of  mankind  in 
hopeless  bondage.  One  half  of  Europe  was  crushed  beneath  the 
Bourbon  scepter ;  and  no  conception  of  political  liberty,  no  hope 
even  of  religious  toleration,  existed  among  that  nation  which  was 
America's  first  ally.  The  king  was  the  state,1  the  king  was  the 
country,  the  king  was  all.  There  was  one  king,  with  power  noF 
derived  from  his  people,  and  too  high  to  be  questioned ;  and  the 
rest  were  all  subjects,  with  no  political  right  but  obedience.  All 
above  was  intangible  power;  all  below,  quiet  subjection.  A 
recent  occurrence  in  the  French  Chambers  shows  us  how  public 
opinion  on  these  subjects  is  changed.  A  minister  had  spoken  of 
the  "king's  subjects."  "There  are  no  subjects,"  exclaimed  hun 
dreds  of  voices  at  once,  "  in  a  country  where  the  people  make 
the  king  ! " 

•  '^Gentlemen,  the  spirit  of  human  liberty  and  of  free  government, 
nurtured  and  grown  into  strength  and  beauty  in  America,  has 
stretched  its  course  into  the  midst  of  the  nations.  Like  an 
emanation  from  Heaven,  it  has  gone  forth,  andtt  will  not  return 
void.  It  must  change,  it  is  fast  changing,  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Our  great,  our  high  duty  is  to  show,  in  our  own  example,  that 
this  spirit  is  a  spirit  of  health  as  well  as  a  spirit  of  power ;  that 
its  benignity  is  as  great  as  its  strength ;  that  its  efficiency  to 
secure  individual  rights,  social  relations,  and  moral  order,  is  equal 

1  An  allusion  to  the  famous  dictum  of  Louis  XIV.,  "  Uetat  c'est  moi" 
("  I  am  the  state  ").      See  p.  37. 


I 


7§  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

to  the  irresistible  force  with  which  it  prostrates  principalities  and 
powers.  The  world  at  this  moment  is  regarding  us  with  a  will 
ing,  but  something  of  a  fearful  admiration.  Its  deep  and  awful 
anxiety  is  to  learn  whether  free  states  may  be  stable,  as  well  as 
free ;  whether  popular  power  may  be  trusted,  as  well  as  feared : 
in  short,  whether  wise,  regular,  and  virtuous  self-government  is  a 
vision  for  the  contemplation  of  theorists,  or  a  truth  established, 
illustrated,  and  brought  into  practice  in  the  country  of  Washington. 

.  ^Gentlemen,  for  the  earth  which  we  inhabit  and  the  whole  circle 
of  the  sun,  for  all  the  unborn  races  of  mankind,  we  seem  to  hold 
in  our  hands,  for  their  weal  or  woe,  the  fate  of  this  experiment. 
If  we  fail,  who  shall  venture  the  repetition  ?  If  our  example 
shall  prove  to  be  one,  not  of  encouragement,  but  of  terror,  not 
fit  to  be  imitated,  but  fit  only  to  be  shunned,  where  else  shall 
the  world  look  for  free  models  ?  If  this  great  Western  Sun  be 
struck  out  of  the  firmament,  at  what  other  fountain  shall  the  lamp 
of  liberty  hereafter  be  lighted  ?  What  other  orb  shall  emit  a  ray 
to  glimmer  even,  on  the  darkness  of  the  world  ? 

There  is  no  danger  of  our  overrating  or  overstating  the  impor 
tant  part  which  we  are  now  acting  in  human  affairs.  It  shouU 
not  flatter  our  personal  self-respect ;  but  it  should  reanimate  our 
patriotic  virtues,  and  inspire  us  with  a  deeper  and  more  solemn 
sense,  both  of  our  privileges  and  of  our  duties.  We  cannot  wish 
better  for  our  country  nor  for  the  world  than  that  the  same 
spirit  which  influenced  Washington  may  influence  all  who  suc 
ceed  him ;  and  that  the  same  blessing  from  above,  which  at 
tended  his  efforts,  may  also  attend  theirs. 

:  .The  principles  of  Washington's  administration  are  not  left 
doubtful.  They  are  to  be  found  in  the  Constitution  itself,  in 
the  great  measures  recommended  and  approved  by  him,  in 
speeches  to  Congress,  and  in  that  most  interesting  paper,  his 
"  Farewell  Address  to  the  People  of  the  United  States."  The 
success  of  the  government  under  his  administration  is  the  highest 
proof  of  the  soundness  of  these  principles.  And,  after  an  experi 
ence  of  thirty-five  years,  what  is  there  which  an  enemy  could 

I 


,       THE    CHARACTER    OF   WASHINGTON.  79 

condemn  ?  What  is  there  which  either  his  friends,  or  the  friends 
of  the  country,  could  wish  to  have  been  otherwise  ?  I  speak,  of 
course,  of  great  measures  and  leading  principles. 

( In  the  first  place,  all  his  measures  were  right  in  their  intent. 
He  stated  the  whole  basis  of  his  own  great  character,  when  he__ 
told  the  country,  in  the  homely  phrase  of  the  proverb,  that  hon 
esty  is  the  best  policy.  One  of  the  most  striking  things  ever  said 
of  him  is,  that  "  he  changed mankind 's  ideas  of  political  greatness"  l 
To  commanding  talents  and  to  success,  the  common  elements 
of  such  greatness,  he  added  a  disregard  of  self,  a  spotlessness  of 
motive,  a  steady  submission  to  every  public  and  private  duty, 
which  threw  far  into  the  shade  the  whole  crowd  of  vulgar  great. 
The  object  of  his  regard  was  the  whole  country.  No  part  of  it 
was  enough  to  fill  his  enlarged  patriotism.  His  love  of  glory,  s_o 
far  as  that  may  be  supposed  to  have  influenced  him  at  all,  spurnejl 
everything  short  of  general  approbation.  It  would  have  been 
nothing  to  him,  that  his  partisans  or  his  favorites  outnumbered, 
or  outvoted,  or  outmanaged,  or  outclamored,  those  of  other  lead 
ers.  He  had  no  favorites ;  he  rejected  all  partisanship ;  and, 
acting  honestly  for  the  universal  good,  he  deserved  what  he  has 
so  richly  enjoyed,  —  the  universal  love. 

-  His  principle  it  was,  to  act  right,  and  to  trust  the  people  for 
support ;  his  principle  it  was,  not  to  follow  the  lead  of  sinister  and 
selfish  ends,  nor  to  rely  on  the  little  arts  of  party  delusion  to 
obtain  public  sanction  for  such  a  course.  Born  for  his  country 
and  for  the  world,  he  did  not  give  up  to  party  what  was  meant  for 
mankind.  The  consequence  is,  that  his  fame  is  as  durable  as 
his  principles,  as  lasting  as  truth  and  virtue  themselves.  While 
the  hundreds  whom  party  excitement,  and  temporary  circum 
stances,  and  casual  combinations,  have  raised  into  transient 
notoriety,  sink  again,  like  thin  bubbles,  bursting  and  dissolving 
into  the  great  ocean,  Washington's  fame  is  like  the  rock  which 
bounds  that  ocean,  and  at  whose  feet  its  billows  are  destined  to 
break  harmlessly  forever. 

1  Works  of  Fisher  Am«s. 

I 


8o  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

The  maxims  upon  which  Washington  conducted  our  foreign 
relations  were  few  and  simple.  The  first  was  an  entire  and 
indisputable  impartiality  towards  foreign  states.  He  adhered 
to  this  rule  of  public  conduct  against  very  strong  inducements  to 
depart  from  it,  and  when  the  popularity  of  the  moment  seemed 
to  favor  such  a  departure.  In  the  next  place,  he  maintained  true 
dignity  and  unsullied  honor  in  all  communications  with  foreign 
states.  It  was  among  the  high  duties  devolved  upon  him  to  in 
troduce  our  new  government  into  the  circle  of  civilized  states  and 
powerful  nations.  Not  arrogant  or  assuming,  with  no  unbecom 
ing  or  supercilious  bearing,  he  yet  exacted  for  it  from  all  others 
entire  and  punctilious  respect.  He  demanded,  and  he  obtained 
at  once,  a  standing  of  perfect  equality  for  his  country  in  the 
society  of  nations  ;  nor  was  there  a  prince  or  potentate  of  his  day 
whose  personal  character  carried  with  it,  into  the  intercourse  of 

other  states,  a  greater  degree  of  respect  and  veneration.  i 

'  oHe  regarded  other  nations  only  as  they  stood  in  political  rela 
tions  to  us.     With  their  internal  affairs,  their  political  parties  and; 
dissensions,  he  scrupulously  abstained  from  all  interference  ;  and,^ 
on  the  other  hand,  he  repelled  with  spirit  all  such  interference  by  5 
others  with  us  or  our  concerns.     His  sternest  rebuke,  the  mos£j 
indignant  measure  of  his  whole  administration,  was  aimed  against 
such   an  attempted   interference.     He  felt  it  as  an  attempt   to 
wound  the  national  honor,  and  resented  it  accordingly. 

The  reiterated  admonitions  in  his  "  Farewell  Address  "  show  his 
deep  fears  that  foreign  influence  would  insinuate  itself  into  ourA 
counsels  through  the  channels  of  domestic  dissension,  and  obtahrf 
a  sympathy  with  our  own  temporary  parties.     Against  all  such 
dangers,  he  most  earnestly  entreats  the  country  to  guard  itself. 
He  appeals  to  its  patriotism,  to  its  self-respect,  to  its  own  honor, 
to  every  consideration  connected  with  its  welfare  and  happiness^  _ 
to  resist,  at  the  very  beginning,  all  tendencies  towards  such  con 
nection  of  foreign  interests  with  our  own  affairs.     With  a  tone 
of  earnestness  nowhere  else  found,  even  in  his  last  affectionate 
farewrell  advice  to  his  countrymen,  he  says,  "  Against  the  insid- 


/  7      >  5     •  •***  ~\ 

"  y     : 

THE    CHARACTER    OF   WASHINGTON.  81 

ious  wiles  of  foreign  influence  (I  conjure  you  to  believe  me,  fel 
low  citizens),  the  jealousy  of  a  free  people  ought  to  be  constantly 
awake,  since  history  and  experience  prove  that  foreign  influence 
is  one  of  the  most  baneful  foes  of  republican  government." 

Lastly,  on  the  subject  of  foreign  relations,  Washington  never 
forgot  that  we  had  interests  peculiar  to  ourselves.  The  primary 
political  concerns  of  Europe,  he  saw,  did  not  affect  us.  We  had 
nothing  to  do  with  her  balance  of  power,  her  family  compacts, 
or  her  successions  to  thrones.  We  were  placed  in  a  condition 
favorable  to  neutrality  during  European  wars,  and  to  the  enjoy^_ 
ment  of  all  the  great  advantages  of  that  relation.  "  Why,  then," 
he  asks  us,  "  why  forego  the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a  situa 
tion  ?  Why  quit  our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign  ground  ?  Why, 
by  interweaving  our  destiny  with  that  of  any  part  of  Europe, 
entangle  our  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  European  ambi- 
tion,  rivalship,  interest,  humor,  or  caprice  ?  " 

"Indeed,  gentlemen,  Washington's  "  Farewell  Address  "  is  full  of 
truths  important  at  all  times,  and  particularly  deserving  consid 
eration  at  the  present.  With  a  sagacity  which  brought  the  future 
before  him,  and  made  it  like  the  present,  he  saw  and  pointed  out  __ 
the  dangers  that  even  at  this  moment  most  imminently  threaten  us. 
I  hardly  know  how  a  greater  service  of  that  kind  could  now  be 
done  to  the  community  than  by  a  renewed  and  wide  diffusion  of 
that  admirable  paper,  and  an  earnest  invitation  to  every  man  in 
the  country  to  reperuse  and  consider  it.  Its  political  maxims 
are  invaluable  ;  its  exhortations  to  love  of  country  and  to 
brotherly  affection  among  citizens,  touching  ;  and  the  solem 
nity  with  which  it  urges  the  observance  of  moral  duties,  and  im 
presses  the  power  of  religious  obligation,  gives  to  it  the  highest, 
character  of  truly  disinterested,  sincere,  parental  advice. 

The  domestic  policy  of  Washington  found  its  polestar  in  the1 
avowed  objects  of  the  Constitution  itself.  He  sought  so  to 
administer  that  Constitution  as  to  form  a  more  perfect  union, 
establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the 
c*mm*n  defense,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 


82  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

blessings  of  liberty.  These  were  objects  interesting  in  the  high 
est  degree  to  the  whole  country ;  and  his  policy  embraced  the 
whole  country. 

"'  Among  his  earliest  and  most  important  duties  was  the  organ 
ization  of  the  government  itself,  the  choice  of  his  confidential 
advisers,  and  the  various  appointments  to  office.  This  duty,  so 
important  and  delicate,  when  a  whole  government  was  to  be 
organized,  and  all  its  offices  for  the  first  time  filled,  was  yet  not 
difficult  to  him ;  for  he  had  no  sinister  ends  to  accomplish,  no 
clamorous  partisans  to  gratify,  no  pledges  to  redeem,  no  object 
to  be  regarded,  but  simply  the  public  good.  It  was  a  plain, 
straightforward  matter,  a  mere  honest  choice  of  good  men  for 
the  public  service. 

/His  own  singleness  of  purpose,  his  disinterested  patriotism, 
were  evinced  by  the  selection  of  his  first  Cabinet,  and  by  thie_ 
manner  in  which  he  filled  the  seats  of  justice  and  other  places 
of  high  trust.  He  sought  for  men  fit  for  offices,  not  for  offices 
which  might  suit  men.  Above  personal  considerations,  above 
local  considerations,  above  party  considerations,  he  felt  that  he 
could  only  discharge  the  sacred  trust  which  the  country  had_ 
placed  in  his  hands,  by  a  diligent  inquiry  after  real  merit,  and  a 
conscientious  preference  of  virtue  and  talent.  The  whole  coun 
try  was  the  field  of  his  selection.  He  explored  that  whole  field, 
looking  only  for  whatever  it  contained  most  worthy  and  distin 
guished.  He  was,  indeed,  most  successful ;  and  he  deserved  suc 
cess  for  the  purity  of  his  motives,  the  liberality  of  his  sentiments, 
and  his  enlarged  and  manly  policy. 

Washington's  administration  established  the  national  credit, 
made  provision  for  the  public  debt  and  for  that  patriotic  army 
whose  interests  and  welfare  were  always  so  dear  to  him, 
by  laws  wisely  framed  and  of  admirable  effect,  raised  the  com 
merce  and  navigation  of  the  country,  almost  at  once,  from  de 
pression  and  ruin  to  a  state  of  prosperity.  Nor  were  his  eyes 
open  to  these  interests  alone.  He  viewed  with  equal  concern  its 
agriculture  and  manufactures,  and,  so  far  as  they  came  within  the 


THE   CHARACTER   OF   WASHINGTON.  83 

regular  exercise  of  the  powers  of  this  government,  they  experi 
enced  regard  and  favor. 

jT$t  should  not  be  omitted,  even  in  this  slight  reference  to  the 
general  measures  and  general  principles  of  the  first  President, 
that  he  saw  and  felt  the  full  value  and  importance  of  the  judicial 
department  of  the  government.  An  upright  and  able  administra 
tion  of  the  laws,  he  held  to  be  alike  indispensable  to  private  hap 
piness  and  public  liberty.  The  temple  of  justice,  in  his  opinion, 
was  a  sacred  place,  and  he  would  profane  and  pollute  it  who 
should  call  any  to  minister  in  it  not  spotless  in  character,  not 
incorruptible  in  integrity,  not  competent  by  talent  and  learning, 
not  a  fit  object  of  unhesitating  trust. 

'Among  other  admonitions,  Washington  has  left  us,  in  his  last 
communication  to  his  country,  an.  exhortation  against  the  ex 
cesses  of  party  spirit.  A  fire  not  to  be  quenched,  he  yet  con 
jures  us  not  to  fan  and  feed  the  flame.  Undoubtedly,  gentle 
men,  it  is  the  greatest  danger  of  our  system  and  of  our  time. 
Undoubtedly,  if  that  system  should  be  overthrown,  it  will  be  the 
work  of  excessive  party  spirit,  acting  on  the  government,  which 
is  dangerous  enough,  or  acting  in  the  government,  which  is  a 
thousand  times  more  dangerous;  for  government  then  becomes 
nothing  but  organized  party,  and,  in  the  strange  vicissitudes  of 
human  affairs,  it  may  come  at  last,  perhaps,  to  exhibit  the  singu 
lar  paradox  of  government  itself  being  in  opposition  to  its  own 
powers,  at  war  with  the  very  elements  of  its  own  existence.  Such 
cases  are  hopeless.  As  men  may  be  protected  against  murder, 
but  cannot  be  guarded  against  suicide,  so  government  may  be 
shielded  from  the  assaults  of  external  foes ;  but  nothing  can  save 
it  when  it  chooses  to  lay  violent  hands  on  itself. 
UJFinally,  gentlemen,  there  was  in  the  breast  of  Washington 
sentiment  so  deeply  felt,  so  constantly  uppermost,  that  no  proper 
occasion  escaped  without  its  utterance.  From  the  letter  which 
he  signed  in  behalf  of  the  Convention  when  the  Constitution  was 
sent  out  to  the  people,  to  the  moment  when  he  put  his  hand  to 
that  last  paper  in  which  he  addressed  his  countrymen,  the  Union 


$4  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

—  the  Union  was  the  great  object  of  his  thoughts.  In  that  first 
letter  he  tells  them  that,  to  him  and  his  brethren  of  the  Conven 
tion,  union  appears  to  be  the  greatest  interest  of  every  true  Ameri 
can  ;  and  in  that  last  paper  he  conjures  them  to  regard  that  unity 
of  government  which  constitutes  them  one  people,  as  the  very 
palladium l  of  their  prosperity  and  safety,  and  the  security  of 
liberty  itself.  He  regarded  the  union  of  these  States  less  as  one 
of  our  blessings  than  as  the  great  treasure-house  which  contained 
them  all.  Here,  in  his  judgment,  was  the  great  magazine  of  all 
our  means  of  prosperity ;  here,  as  he  thought,  and  as  every  true 
American  still  thinks,  are  deposited  all  our  animating  prospects, 
all  our  solid  hopes  for  future  greatness.  He  has  taught  us  to 
maintain  this  union,  not  by  seeking  to  enlarge  the  powers  of  the 
government,  on  the  one  hand,  nor  by  surrendering  them,  on  the 
other,  but  by  an  administration  of  them  at  once  firm  and  mogU 
erate,  pursuing  objects  truly  national,  and  carried  on  in  a  spirit 
of  justice  and  equity. 

The  extreme  solicitude  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  at 
all  times  manifested  by  him,  shows  not  only  the  opinion  he 
entertained  of  its  importance,  but  his  clear  perception  of  those, 
causes  which  were  likely  to  spring  up  to  endanger  it,  and  which, 
if  once  they  should  overthrow  the  present  system,  would  leave 
little  hope  of  any  future  beneficial  union.  Of  all  the  presump 
tions  indulged  by  presumptuous  man,  that  is  one  of  the  rashest 
which  looks  for  repeated  and  favorable  opportunities  for  the^ 
deliberate  establishment  of  a  united  government  over  distinct  and 
widely  extended  communities.  Such  a  thing  has  happened  once 
in  human  affairs,  and  but  once :  the  event  stands  out  as  a  prom 
inent  exception  to  all  ordinary  history ;  and,  unless  we  suppose 
ourselves  running  into  an  age  of  miracles,  we  may  not  expect  its 
repetition. 
-n  Washington,  therefore,  could  regard,  and  did  regard,  nothing 

•vV-"^          ,     . 

1  Preserver.  This  was  the  name  applied  to  the  statue  of  Pallas  Athene, 
the  presence  of  which  within  the  walls  of  Troy  was  believed  to  assure  the 
preservation  of  the  city  from  the  attacks  of  the  Greeks. 


THE   CHARACTER   OF   WASHINGTON.  85 

as  of  paramount  political  interest  but  the  integrity  of  the  Union 
itself.  With  a  united  government  well  administered,  he  saw  that 
we  had  nothing  to  fear ;  and  without  it,  nothing  to  hope.  The 
sentiment  is  just,  and  its  momentous  truth  should  solemnly 
impress  the  whole  country.  If  we  might  regard  our  country  as 
personated  in  the  spirit  of  Washington ;  if  we  might  consider  him 
as  representing  her  in  her  past  renown,  her  present  prosperity, 
and  her  future  career,  and  as,  in  that  character,  demanding  of  us 
all  to  account  for  our  conduct  as  political  men  or  as  private 
citizens, — how  should  he  answer  him  who  has  ventured  to  talk  of 
disunion  and  dismemberment  ?  Or  how  should  he  answer  him 
who  dwells  perpetually  on  local  interests,  and  fans  every  kindling 
flame  of  local  prejudice  ?  How  should  he  answer  him  who 
would  array  State  against  State,  interest  against  interest,  and  party 
against  party,  careless  of  the  continuance  of  that  unity  of  govern 
ment  which  constitutes  us  one  people  ? 

\  The  political  prosperity  which  this  country  has  attained,  and 
which  it  now  enjoys,  has  been  acquired  mainly  through  the  in 
strumentality  of  the  present  government.  While  this  agent  con 
tinues,  the  capacity  of  attaining  to  still  higher  degrees  of  pros 
perity  exists  also.  We  have,  while  this  lasts,  a  political  life  capa 
ble  of  beneficial  exertion,  with  power  to  resist  or  overcome  mis 
fortunes,  to  sustain  us  against  the  ordinary  accidents  of  human 
affairs,  and  to  promote,  by  active  efforts,  every  public  interest. 
But  dismemberment  strikes  at  the  very  being  which  preserves, 
these  faculties.  It  would  lay  its  rude  and  ruthless  hand  on  this 
great  agent  itself.  It  would  sweep  away,  not  only  what  we  pos 
sess,  but  all  power  of  regaining  lost,  or  acquiring  new  possessions. 
It  would  leave  the  country  not  only  bereft  of  its  prosperity  and 
happiness,  but  without  limbs,  or  organs,  or  faculties  by  which  to 
exert  itself  hereafter  in  the  pursuit  of  that  prosperity  and  happiness. 
•  Other  misfortunes  may  be  borne,  or  their  effects  overcome.  If 
disastrous  war  should  sweep  our  commerce  from  the  ocean,  an 
other  generation  may  renew  it ;  if  it  exhaust  our  treasury,  future 
industry  may  replenish  it ;  if  it  desolate  and  lay  waste  our  fields, 
T-H  /> 


86  DANIEL   WEBSTER. 

still,  under  a  new  cultivation,  they  will  grow  green  again,  and 
ripen  to  future  harvests.  It  were  but  a  trifle,  even  ifthe  walls  of 
yonder  Capitol  were  to  crumble,  if  its  lofty  pillars  should  fall, 
and  its  gorgeous  decorations  be  all  covered  by  the  dust  of  the 
valley.  All  these  might  be  rebuilt.  But  who  shall  reconstruct 
the  fabric  of  demolished  government  ?  Who  shall  rear  again 
the  well-proportioned  columns  of  constitutional  liberty  ?  Who 
shall  frame  together  the  skillful  architecture  which  unites  national 
sovereignty  with  State  rights,  individual  security,  and  public  pros 
perity  ?  No,  if  these  columns  fall,  they  will  be  raised  not  again. 
Like  the  Coliseum  l  and  the  Parthenon,2  they  will  be  destined  to 
a  mournful,  a  melancholy  immortality.  Bitterer  tears,  however, 
will  flow  over  them  than  were  ever  shed  over  the  monuments  of 
Roman  or  Grecian  art ;  for  they  will  be  the  remnants  of  a  more 
glorious  edifice  than  Greece  or  Rome  ever  saw,  —  the  edifice  of 

constitutional  American  liberty.  , 

b  But  let  us  hope  for  better  things.  Let  us  trust  in  that  gracious 
Being  who  has  hitherto  held  our  country  as  in  the  hollow  of  his  , 
hand.  Let  us  trust  to  the  virtue  and  the  intelligence  of  the 
people,  and  to  the  efficacy  of  religious  obligation.  Let  us  trust 
to  the  influence  of  Washington's  example.  Let  us  hope  that 
that  fear  of  Heaven  which  expels  all  other  fear,  and  that  regard 
to  duty  which  transcends  all  other  regard,  may  influence  public 
men  and  private  citizens,  and  lead  our  country  still  onward  in 
her  happy  career.  Full  of  these  gratifying  anticipations  and 
hopes,  let  us  look  forward  to  the  end  of  that  century  which  jis 
now  commenced.  A  hundred  years  hence,  other  disciples  of 
Washington  will  celebrate  his  birth,  with  no  less  of  sincere  ad 
miration  than  we  now  commemorate  it.  When  they  shall  meet, 
as  we  now  meet,  to  do  themselves  and  him  that  honor,  so  surely 
as  they  shall  see  the  blue  summits  of  his  native  mountains  rise  ijcu_ 
the  horizon,  so  surely  as  they  shall  behold  the  river  on  whose 
banks  he  lived,  and  on  whose  banks  he  rests,  still  flowing  on  to- 

1  The  famous  amphitheater  at  Rome,  built  by  the  Emperor  Vespasian. 

2  The  marble  temple  of  Athene,  on  the  Acropolis  at  Athens. 


THE    CHARACTER    OF   WASHINGTON.  87 

wards  the  sea,  so  surely  may  they  see,  as  we  now  see,  the  flag  of 
the  Union  floating  on  the  top  of  the  Capitol ;  and  then,  as  now, 
may  the  sun  in  his  course  visit  no  land  more  free,  more  happy, 
more  lovely,  than  this  our  own  country  ! 
Gentlemen,  I  propose 

"THE  MEMORY  OF  GEORGE  WASHINGTON." 


THE   LANDING  AT   PLYMOUTH. 

A    SPEECH    DELIVERED    ON    THE    22D    OF    DECEMBER,    1843,    AT 

THE    PUBLIC    DINNER    OF    THE    NEW-ENGLAND    SOCIETY 

OF    NEW    YORK,    IN    COMMEMORATION    OF    THE 

LANDING    OF    THE    PILGRIMS. 


MR.  PRESIDENT,  I  have  a  grateful  duty  to  perform 
in  acknowledging  the  kindness  of  the  sentiment  thus  ex 
pressed  towards  me.1  And  yet  I  must  say,  gentlemen,  that  I  rise 
upon  this  occasion  under  a  consciousness  that  I  may  probably 
disappoint  highly  raised,  too  highly  raised  expectations.  In  the^ 
scenes  of  this  evening,  and  in  the  scene  of  this  day,  my  part  is  a 
humble  one.  I  can  enter  into  no  competition  with  the  fresher 
geniuses  of  those  more  eloquent  gentlemen,  learned  and  rever- 

1  On  the  22d  of  December,  1843,  the  anniversary  of  the  landing  at  Plym 
outh  was  celebrated  with  great  success  by  the  New- En  gland  Society  of  New 
York.  The  exercises  were  opened  with  a  commemorative  oration  by  the 
Hon.  Rufus  Choate ;  and  later  in  the  day  the  Society  and  a  number  of  invited 
guests  met  at  a  public  dinner  at  the  Astor  House.  After  several  appropriate 
toasts  had  been  given  and  responded  to,  George  Griswold  rose,  and  offered  a 
few  complimentary  remarks  concerning  Daniel  Webster.  After  referring  to 
that  gentleman's  public  services,  to  his  refutation  of  the  doctrine  of  nullifica 
tion,  and  to  the  wisdom  of  his  course  in  connection  with  the  treaty  of  Wash 
ington,  Mr.  Griswold  gave  the  following  toast :  — 

"  DANIEL  WEBSTER, — the  gift  of  New  England  to  his  country,  his  whole 
country,  and  nothing  but  his  country." 

When  Mr.  Webster  rose  to  respond  to  this  toast,  he  was  greeted  with  nine 
hearty  and  prolonged  cheers  ;  and  when  quiet  had  been  restored,  he  proceeded 
to  deliver  this  address. 

88 


THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  89 

end,  who  have  addressed  this  Society.  I  may  perform,  however, 
the  humbler,  but  sometimes  useful,  duty  of  contrast,  by  adding 
the  dark  ground  of  the  picture,  which  shall  serve  to  bring  out 
the  more  brilliant  colors. 

J.  I  must  receive,  gentlemen,  the  sentiment  proposed  by  the 
worthy  and  distinguished  citizen  of  New  York  before  me,  as  in 
tended  to  convey  the  idea,  that  as  a  citizen  of  New  England,  as 
a  son,  a  child,  a  creation,  of  New  England,  I  may  be  yet  supposed 
to  entertain,  in  some  degree,  that  enlarged  view  of  my  duty  as  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States  and  as  a  public  man,  which  may,  in 
some  small  measure,  commend  me  to  the  regard  of  the  whole 
country.  While  I  am  free  to  confess,  gentlemen,  that  there  is 
no  compliment  of  which  I  am  more  desirous  to  be  thought 
worthy,  I  will  add,  that  a  compliment  of  that  kind  could  have 
proceeded  from  no  source  more  agreeable  to  my  own  feelings 
than  from  the  gentleman  who  has  proposed  it,  —  an  eminent 
merchant,  the  member  of  a  body  of  eminent  merchants,  known 
throughout  the  world  for  their  intelligence  and  enterprise.  I  the 
more  especially  feel  this,  gentlemen,  because,  whether  I  view  the 
present  state  of  things,  or  recur  to  the  history  of  the  past,  I  can 
in  neither  case  be  ignorant  how  much  that  profession  and  its 
distinguished  members,  from  an  early  day  of  our  history,  have 
contributed  to  make  the  country  what  it  is,  and  the  government 
what  it  is. 

Gentlemen,  the  free  nature  of  our  institutions,  and  the  popular 
form  of  those  governments  which  have  come  down  to  us  from 
the  Rock  of  Plymouth,  give  scope  to  intelligence,  to  talent,  en 
terprise,  and  public  spirit,  from  all  classes  making  up  the  great 
body  of  the  community.  And  the  country  has  received  benefit, 
in  all  its  history  and  in  all  its  .exigencies,  of  the  most  eminent  and 
striking  character,  from  persons  of  the  class  to  which  my  friend 
before  me  belongs.  Who  will  ever  forget  that  the  first  name 
signed  to  our  ever-memorable  and  ever-glorious  Declaration  of 
Independence  is  the  name  of  John  Hancock,  a  merchant  of 
Boston  ?  Who  will  ever  forget,  that  in  the  most  disastrous  days 


90  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

of  the  Revolution,  when  the  treasury  of  the  country  was  bank 
rupt,  with  unpaid  navies  and  starving  armies,  it  was  a  merchant, 
—  Robert  Morris  of  Philadelphia,  —  who  by  a  noble  sacrifice  of 
his  own  fortune,  as  well  as  by  the  exercise  of  his  great  financial 
abilities,  sustained  and  supported  the  wise  men  of  the  country 
council,  and  the  brave  men  of  the  country  in  the  field  of  battle  ? 
Nor  are  there  wanting  more  recent  instances.  I  have  the  pleas 
ure  to  see  near  me,  and  near  my  friend  who  proposed  this  sen 
timent,  the  son  of  an  eminent  merchant  of  New  England  [Mr. 
Goodhue],  an  early  member  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States^--* 
always  consulted,  always  respected,  in  whatever  belonged  to  the 
duty  and  the  means  of  putting  in  operation  the  financial  and 
commercial  system  of  the  country ;  and  this  mention  of  the 
father  of  my  friend  brings  to  my  mind  the  memory  of  his  great 
colleague,  the  early  associate  of  Hamilton  and  of  Ames,  trusted. — 
and  beloved  by  Washington,  consulted  on  all  occasions  connected 
with  the  administration  of  the  finances,  the  establishment  of  the 
treasury  department,  the  imposition  of  the  first  rates  of  duty,  and 
with  everything  that  belonged  to  the  commercial  system  of  the 
United  States,  —  George  Cabot  of  Massachusetts. 

I  will  take  this  occasion  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  there  is  no 
truth  better  developed  and  established  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States,  from  the  formation  of  the  Constitution  to  the  present  time, 
than  this,  —  that  the  mercantile  classes,  the  great  commercial 
masses  of  the  country,  whose  affairs  connect  them  strongly  with 
every  State  in  the  Union  and  with  all  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
whose  business  and  profession  give  a  sort  of  nationality  to  their 
character,  —  that  no  class  of  men  among  us,  from  the  beginning, 
have  shown  a  stronger  and  firmer  devotion  to  whatsoever  has 
been  designed,  or  to  whatever  has  tended,  to  preserve  the  union 
of  these  States  and  the  stability  of  the  free  government  under 
which  we  live.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  regard 
to  the  various  municipal  regulations  and  local  interests,  has  left 
the  States  individual,  disconnected,  isolated.  It  has  left  them 
their  own  codes  of  criminal  law ;  it  has  left  them  their  own  sys- 


THE   LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  91 

tern  of  municipal  regulations.  But  there  was  one  great  interest, 
one  great  concern,  which,  from  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  was 
no  longer  to  be  left  under  the  regulations  of  the  then  thirteen, 
afterwards  twenty,  and  now  twenty-six  States,  but  was  com 
mitted,  necessarily  committed,  to  the  care,  the  protection,  and 
the  regulation  of  one  government ;  and  this  was  that  great  unit, 
as  it  has  been  called,  the.  commerce  of  the  United  States.  There 
is  no  commerce  of  New  York,  no  commerce  of  Massachusetts, 
none  of  Georgia,  none  of  Alabama  or  Louisiana.  All  and  singu 
lar,  in  the  aggregate  and  in  all  its  parts,  is  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States,  regulated  at  home  by  a  uniform  system  of  laws 
under  the  authority  of  the  general  government,  and  protected 
abroad  under  the  flag  of  our  government,  the  glorious  E  Pluribus 
Unum}-  and  guarded,  if  need  be,  by  the  power. of  the  general 
government  all  over  the  world.  There  is,  therefore,  gentlemen^ 
nothing  more  cementing,  nothing  that  makes  us  more  cohesive, 
nothing  that  more  repels  all  tendencies  to  separation  and  disr 
memberment,  than  this  great,  this  common,  I  may  say  this  over 
whelming  interest  of  one  commerce,  one  general  system  of  trade 
and  navigation,  one  everywhere  and  with  every  nation  of  the_ 
globe.  There  is  no  flag  of  any  particular  American  State  seen 
in  the  Pacific  seas,  or  in  the  Baltic,  or  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  Who 
knows,  or  who  hears,  there  of  your  proud  State,  or  of  my  proud 
State  ?  Who  knows,  or  who  hears,  of  anything,  at  the  extremest 
north  or  south,  or  at  the  antipodes;  in  the  remotest  regions  of, 
the  Eastern  or  Western  sea, — who  ever  hears,  or  knows,  of  any 
thing  but  an  American  ship,  or  of  any  American  enterprise  of  a 
commercial  character  that  does  not  bear  the  impression  of  the 
American  Union  with  it  ? 

It  would  be  a  presumption  of  which  I  cannot  be  guilty,  gentle 
men,  for  me  to  imagine  for  a  moment,  that,  among  the  gifts 
which  New  England  has  made  to  our  common  country,  I  am 
anything  more  than  one  of  the  most  inconsiderable.  I  readily 
bring  to  mind  the  great  men,  not  only  with  whom  I  have  met, 
1  One  out  of  many, — the  motto  of  the  United  States. 


92  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

but  those  6f  the  generation  before  me,  who  now  sleep  with  their 
fathers,  distinguished  in  the  Revolution,  distinguished  in  the 
formation  of  the  Constitution  and  in  the  early  administration  of 
the  government,  always  and  everywhere  distinguished ;  and  I 
shrink  in  just  and  conscious  humiliation  before  their  established 
character  and  established  renown ;  and  all  that  I  venture  to  say, 
and  all  that  I  venture  to  hope  may  be  thought  true  in  the  senti 
ment  proposed,  is,  that  so  far  as  mind  and  purpose,  so  far  as 
intention  and  will,  are  concerned,  I  may  be  found  among  those 
who  are  capable  of  embracing  the  whole  country,  of  which  they_ 
are  members,  in  a  proper,  comprehensive,  and  patriotic  regard. 
We  all  know  that  the  objects  which  are  nearest  are  the  objects 
which  are  dearest.  Family  affections,  neighborhood  affections, 
social  relations ;  these,  in  truth,  are  nearest  and  dearest  to  us  all : 
but  whosoever  shall  be  able  rightly  to  adjust  the  graduation  of  ^ 
his  affections,  and  to  love  his  friends  and  his  neighbors  and  his 
country  as  he  ought  to  love  them,  merits  the  commendation  pro 
nounced  by  the  philosophic  poet  upon  him 

"  Qui  didicit  patriae  quid  debeat,  et  quid  amicis."1 

Gentlemen,  it  has  been  my  fortune,  in  the  little  part  which  I    . 
have  acted  in  public  life,  for  good  or  for  evil  to  the  community^ 
to  be  connected  entirely  with  that  government,  which,  within  the 
limits  of  constitutional  power,  exercises  jurisdiction  over  all  the 
States  and  all  the  people.     My  friend  at  the  end  of  the  table,  on 
my  left,  has  spoken  pleasantly  to  us  to-night  of  the  reputed  mira-^ 
cles  of  tutelar  saints.     In  a  sober  sense,  in  a  sense  of  deep  con 
viction,  I  say  that  the  emergence    of  this  country  from  British 
domination,  and  its  union,  under  its  present  form  of  government, 
beneath  the  general  Constitution  of  the  country,  if  not  a  miracle, 
is,  I  do  not  say  the  most,  but  one  of  the  most,  fortunate,  the  most 
admirable,  the   most   auspicious,  occurrences  which   have   ever 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  man.     Circumstances  have  wrought  out  for 

1  ' '  Who  has  learned  what  he  owes  to  his  country,  and  what  to  his  friends^ 
—  HORACE. 


THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  93 

us  a  state  of  things,  which,  in  other  times  and  other  regions,  phi 
losophy  has  dreamed  of,  and  theory  has  proposed,  and  speculation 
has  suggested,  but  which  man  has  never  been  able  to  accomplish. 
I  mean  the  government  of  a  great  nation,  over  a  vastly  extended 
portion  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  by  means  of  local  institutions^, 
for  local  purposes,  and  general  institutions  for  general  purposes.  I 
know  of  nothing  in  the  history  of  the  world,  notwithstanding  the 
great  league  of  Grecian  states,  notwithstanding  the  success  of  the 
Roman  system  (and  certainly  there  is  no  exception  to  the  remark 
in  modern  history),  —  I  know  of  nothing  so  suitable,  on  the  wholg^i 
for  the  great  interests  of  a  great  people  spread  over  a  large  por 
tion  of  the  globe,  as  the  provision  of  local  legislation  for  local 
and  municipal  purposes,  with,  not  a  confederacy,  nor  a  loose 
binding  together  of  separate  parts,  but  a  limited,  positive  general 
government,  for  positive  general  purposes,  over  the  whole.  W&4 
may  derive  eminent  proofs  of  this  truth  from  the  past  and  the 
present.  What  see  we  to-day  in  the  agitations  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic  ?  I  speak  of  them,  of  course,  without  expressing 
any  opinion  on  questions  of  politics  in  a  foreign  country ;  but  I 
speak  of  them  as  an  occurrence  which  shows  the  great  e 
ency,  the  utility,  I  may  say  the  necessity,  of  local  legislation. 
If,  in  a  country  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  [Ireland],  there  be 
some  who  desire  a  severance  of  one  part  of  the  empire  from 
another,  under  a  proposition  of  repeal,  there  are  others  who  pro. 
pose  a  continuance  of  the  existing  relation  under  a  federativ 
system :  and  what  is  this  ?  No  more  and  no  less  than  an  ap 
proximation  to  that  system  under  which  we  live,  which  for  local 
municipal  purposes  shall  have  a  local  legislature,  and  for  general 
purposes  a  general  legislature. 

"1  This  becomes  the  more  important  when  we  consider  that  the 
United  States  stretch  over  so  many  degrees  of  latitude,  that 
they  embrace  such  a  variety  of  climate,  that  various  conditions 
and  relations  of  society  naturally  call  for  different  laws  and  regu 
lations.  Let  me  ask  whether  the  Legislature  of  New  York  could 
wisely  pass  laws  for  the  government  of  Louisiana,  or  whether 


94  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

the  Legislature  of  Louisiana  could  wisely  pass  laws  for  Pennsyl 
vania  or  New  York.  Everybody  will  say,  "  No."  And  yet  the 
interests  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  and  Louisiana,  in  what 
ever  concerns  their  relations  between  themselves  and  their  gen 
eral  relations  with  all  the  states  of  the  world,  are  found  to  be  pei> 
fectly  well  provided  for,  arid  adjusted  with  perfect  congruity,  by 
committing  these  general  interests  to  one  common  government, 
the  result  of  popular  general  elections  among  them  all. 
Y  I  confess,  gentlemen,  that  having  been,  as  I  have  said,  in  my 
humble  career  in  public  life,  employed  in  that  portion  of  the  putj>/ 
lie  service  which  is  connected  with  the  general  government,  I 
have  contemplated,  as  the  great  object  of  every  proceeding,  not 
only  the  particular  benefit  of  the  moment,  or  the  exigency  of  the 
occasion,  but  the  preservation  of  this  system ;  for  I  do  consider 
it  so  much  the  result  of.  circumstances,  and  that  so  much  of  it  js__^ 
due  to  fortunate  concurrence  as  well  as  to  the  sagacity  of  the 
great  men  acting  upon  those  occasions,  that  it  is  an  experiment 
of  such  remarkable  and  renowned  success,  that  he  is  a  fool  or 
a  madman  who  would  wish  to  try  that  experiment  a  second  time. 
I  see  to-day,  and  we  all  see,  that  the  descendants  of  the  Puritans^^ 
who  landed  upon  the  Rock  of  Plymouth;  the  followers  of 
Raleigh,  who  settled  Virginia  and  North  Carolina ;  he  who  lives 
where  the  truncheon  of  empire,  so  to  speak,  was  borne  by  Smith ; 
the  inhabitants  of  Georgia ;  he  who  settled,  under  the  auspices  of 
France,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi ;  the  Swede  on  the  Dela-^ 
ware;  the  Quaker  of  Pennsylvania, — all  find  at  this  day  their 
common  interest,  their  common  protection,  their  common  glory, 
under  the  united  government,  which  leaves  them  all,  nevertheless, 
in  the  administration  of  their  own  municipal  and  local  affairs,  to 
be  Frenchmen,  or  Swedes,  or  Quakers,  or  whatever  they  choose*^. 
And  when  one  considers  that  this  system  of  government,  I  will 
not  say  has  produced,  because  God  and  nature  and  circum 
stances  have  had  an  agency  in  it, — but  when  it  is  considered 
that  this  system  has  not  prevented,  but  has  rather  encouraged, 
the  growth  of  the  people  of  this  country  from  three  millions  on 


THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  95 

the  glorious  4th  of  July,  1776,  to  seventeen  millions  now,  who 
is  there  that  will  say,  upon  this  hemisphere,  nay,  who  is  there  that 
will  stand  up  in  any  hemisphere,  who  is  there  in  any  part  of  the 
world,  that  will  say  that  the  great  experiment  of  a  united  repub 
lic  has  failed  in  America  ?  And  yet  I  know,  gentlemen,  I  feel^_ 
that  this  united  system  is  held  together  by  strong  tendencies  to 
union,  at  the  same  time  that  it  is  kept  from  too  much  leaning  to 
wards  consolidation  by  a  strong  tendency  in  the  several  States 
to  support  each  its  own  power  and  consideration.  In  the  physi 
cal  world  it  is  said,  that  - 

"  All  nature's  difference  keeps  all  nature's  peace," 

and  there  is  in  the  political  world  this  same  harmonious  difference, 
this  regular  play  of  the  positive  and  negative  powers  (if  I  may  so 
say),  which,  at  least  for  one  glorious  half  century,  has  kept  us  as 
we  have  been  kept,  and  made  us  what  we  are. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  must  not  allow  myself  to  pursue  this  topic. 
It  is  a  sentiment  so  commonly  repeated  by  me  upon  all  public 
occasions,  and  upon  all  private  occasions,  and  everywhere,  that 
I  forbear  to  dwell  upon  it  now.  It  is  the  union  of  these  States, 
it  is  the  system  of  government  under  which  we  live,  beneath  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  happily  framed,  wisely  adopted, 
successfully  administered  for  fifty  years,  —  it  is  mainly  this,  I  say, 
that  gives  us  power  at  home  and  credit  abroad.  And,  for  one, 
I  never  stop  to  consider  the  power,  or  wealth,  or  greatness  of  a 
State.  I  tell  you,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  care  nothing  for  your  Empire 
State  as  such.  Delaware  and  Rhode  Island  are  as  high  in  my 
regard  as  New  York.  In  population,  in  power,  in  the  govern 
ment  over  us,  you  have  a  greater  share.  You  would  have  the 
same  share,  if  you  were  divided  into  forty  States.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  as  a  State  sovereignty,  it  is  only  because  New  York 
is  a  vast  portion  of  the  whole  American  people,  that  I  regarci 
this  State,  as  I  always  shall  regard  her,  as  respectable  1  and  honor 
able.  But  among  State  sovereignties  there  is  no  preference; 

1  See  note,  p.  50. . 


96  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

there  is  nothing  high  and  nothing  low  ;  every  State  is  independent, 
and  every  State  is  equal.  If  we  depart  from  this  great  principle, 
then  are  we  no  longer  one  people,  but  we  are  thrown  back 
again  upon  the  Confederation,  and  upon  that  state  of  things  in 
which  the  inequality  of  the  States  produced  all  the  evils 
befell  us  in  times  past,  and  a  thousand  ill-adjusted  and  jarring 
interests. 

•I  Mr.  President,  I  wish,  then,  without  pursuing  these  thoughts, 
without  especially  attempting  to  produce  any  fervid  impression 
by  dwelling  upon  them,  to  take  this  occasion  to  answer  my  friencj 
who  has  proposed  the  sentiment,  and  to  respond  to  it  by  saying, 
that  whoever  would  serve  his  country  in  this  our  day,  with  what 
ever  degree  of  talent,  great  or  small,  it  may  have  pleased  the 
Almighty  Power  to  give  him,  he  cannot  serve  it,  he  will  not  serve 
it,  unless  he  be  able,  at  least,  to  extend  his  political  designs,  pur 
poses,  and  objects,  till  they  shall  comprehend  the  whole  country 
of  which  he  is  a  servant. 

/;  Sir,  I  must  say  a  word  in  connection  with  that  event  which 
we  have  assembled  to  commemorate.  It  has  seemed  fit  to  the 
dwellers  in  New  York,  New  Englanders  by  birth  or  descent, 
form  this  society.  They  have  formed  it  for  the  relief  of  the  poor 
and  distressed,  and  for  the  purpose  of  commemorating  annually 
the  great  event  of  the  settlement  of  the  country  from  which  they 
spring.  It  would  be  great  presumption  in  me  to  go  back  to  the 
scene  of  that  settlement,  or  to  attempt  to  exhibit  it  in  any  colqrj 
after  the  exhibition  made  to-day ;  yet  it  is  an  event  that  in  all 
time  since,  and  in  all  time  to  come,  and  more  in  times  to  come 
than  in  times  past,  must  stand  out  in  great  and  striking  charac 
teristics  to  the  admiration  of  the  world.  The  sun's  return  to  his 
winter's  solstice,  in  1620,  is  the  epoch  from  which  he  dates  his 
first  acquaintance  with  the  small  people,  now  one  of  the  happiest, 
and  destined  to  be  one  of  the  greatest,  that  his  rays  fall  upon ; 
and  his  annual  visitation,  from  that  day  to  this,  to  our  frozen 
region,  has  enabled  him  to  see  that  progress,  progress,  was  the 
characteristic  of  that  small  people.  He  has  seen  them,  from  a 


THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  97 

handful  that  one  of  his  beams  coming  through  a  keyhole  might 
illuminate,  spread  over  a  hemisphere  which  he  cannot  enlighten 
under  the  slightest  eclipse.  Nor,  though  this  globe  should  re 
volve  round  him  for  tens  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  will 
he  see  such  another  incipient  colonization  upon  any  part  of  this 
attendant  upon  his  mighty  orb.  What  else  he  may  see  in  those 
other  planets  which  revolve  around  him,  we  cannot  tell,  at  least 
until  we  have  tried  the  fifty-foot  telescope  which  Lord  Rosse  is 
preparing  for  that  purpose. 

pJThere  is  not,  gentlemen,  and  we  may  as  well  admit  it,  in  any 

nistory  of  the  past,  another  epoch  from  which  so  many  great 
events  have  taken  a  turn,  —  events  which,  while  important  to  us, 
are  equally  important  to  the  country  from  whence  we  came.  The 
settlement  of  Plymouth  —  concurring,  I  always  wish  to  be  under 
stood,  with  that  of  Virginia — was  the  settlement  of  New  England 
by  colonies  of  Old  England.  Now,  gentlemen,  take  these  two 
ideas,  and  run  out  the  thoughts  suggested  by  both.  What  has 
been,  and  what  is  to  be,  Old  England  ?  What  has  been,  what 
is,  and  what  may  be,  in  the  providence  of  God,  New  England, 
with  her  neighbors  and  associates  ?  I  would  not  dwell,  gentle^,  - 
men,  with  any  particular  emphasis  upon  the  sentiment,  which  I 
nevertheless  entertain,  with  respect  to  the  great  diversity  in  the 
races  of  men.  I  do  not  know  how  far,  in  that  respect,  I  might  not 
encroach  on  those  mysteries  of  Providence,  which,  while  I  adore, 
I  may  not  comprehend ;  but  it  does  seem  to  me  to  be  very  re 
markable  that  we  may  go  back  to  the  time  when  New  England^ 
or  those  who  founded  it,  were  subtracted  from  Old  England,  and 
both  Old  England  and  New  England  went  on,  nevertheless,  in 
their  mighty  career  of  progress  and  power. 

;Let  me  begin  with  New  England  for  a  moment.  What  has 
resulted,  embracing,  as  I  say,  the  nearly  contemporaneous  settle 
ment  of  Virginia,  —  what  has  resulted  from  the  planting  upon  this 
continent  of  two  or  three  slender  colonies  from  the  mother  coun 
try  ?  Gentlemen,  the  great  epitaph  commemorative  of  the  char 
acter  and  the  worth,  the  discoveries  and  glory,  of  Columbus,  was, 
7 


98  DANIEL    WEBSTE&. 

that  he  had.  given  a  new  world  to  the  crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon. 
Gentlemen,  this  is  a  great  mistake.  It  does  not  come  up  at  all 
to  the  great  merits  of  Columbus.  He  gave  the  territory  of  the 
southern  hemisphere  to  the  crowns  of  Castile  and  Aragon  ;  but  as 
a  place  for  the  plantation  of  colonies,  as  a  place  for  the  habita-, 
tion  of  men,  as  a  place  to  which  laws  and  religion  and  manners 
and  science  were  to  be  transferred,  as  a  place  in  which  the 
creatures  of  God  should  multiply  and  fill  the  earth,  under  friendly 
skies  and  with  religious  hearts,  he  gave  it  to  the  whole  world,  he 
gave  it  to  universal  man  !  From  this  seminal  principle,  and  from 
a  handful,  —  a  hundred  saints,  blessed  of  God  and  ever  honored 
of  men,  landed  on  the  shores  of  Plymouth,  and  elsewhere  along 
the  coast,  united,  as  I  have  said  already  more  than  once,  in  the 
process  of  time,  with  the  settlement  at  Jamestown, — has  sprung 
this  great  people  of  which  we  are  a  portion. 
I  ^1  do  not  reckon  myself  among  quite  the  oldest  of  the  land ; 
and  yet  it  so  happens  that  very  recently  I  recurred  to  an  exult 
ing  speech  or  oration  of  my  own,1  in  which  I  spoke  of  my  coun 
try  as  consisting  of  nine  millions  of  people.  I  could  hardly  per 
suade  myself,  that,  within  the  short  time  which  had  elapsed  since 
that  epoch,  our  population  had  doubled ;  and  that  at  the  present 
moment  there  does  exist  most  unquestionably  as  great  a  proba 
bility  of  its  continued  progress  in  the  same  ratio  as  has  ever 
existed  in  any  previous  time.  I  do  not  know  whose  imagination 
is  fertile  enough,  I  do  not  know  whose  conjectures,  I  may  almost, 
say,  are  wild  enough,  to  tell  what  may  be  the  progress  of  wealth 
and  population  in  the  United  States  in  half  a  century  to  come. 
All  we  know  is,  here  is  a  people  of  from  seventeen  to  twenty  mil 
lions,  intelligent,  educated,  freeholders,  freemen,  republicans,  pos 
sessed  of  all  the  means  of  modern  improvement,  modern  science, 
arts,  literature,  with  the  world  before  them  !  There  is  nothing 
to  check  them  till  they  touch  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,2  and  then, 

1  Oratien  on  the  First  Settlement  •£  New  England,  Dec.  22,  1820. 

2  Five  years  later,  gold  was  discovered  in  California,  and  the  first  great 
movement  of  settlers  towards  the  Pacific  coast  was  begun. 


THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  99 

they  are  so  much  accustomed  to  water,  that  that's  a  facility  and 
no  obstruction  ! 

So  much,  gentlemen,  for  this  branch  of  the  English  race.  But 
what  has  happened,  meanwhile,  to  England  herself,  since  the 
period  of  the  departure  of  the  Puritans  from  the  coast  of  Lin 
colnshire,  from  the  English  Boston  ?  Gentlemen,  in  speaking  of 
the  progress  of  English  power,  of  English  dominion  and  author 
ity,  from  that  period  to  the  present,  I  shall  be  understood,  of 
course,  as  neither  entering  into  any  defense,  or  any  accusation, 
of  the  policy  which  has  conducted  her  to  her  present  state.  As_^-— 
to  the  justice  of  her  wars,  the  necessity  of  her  conquests,  the  pro 
priety  of  those  acts  by  which  she  has  taken  possession  of  so  great 
a  portion  of  the  globe,  it  is  not  the  business  of  the  present  occa 
sion  to  inquire.  Neque  teneo,  neque  refello.^  But  I  speak  of 
them,  or  intend  to  speak  of  them,  as  facts  of  the  most  extraordi^--  - 
nary  character,  unequaled  in  the  history  of  any  nation  on  the 
globe,  and  the  consequences  of  which  may  and  must  reach 
through  a  thousand  generations.  The  Puritans  left  England  in 
the  reign  of  James  I.  England  herself  had  then  become  some 
what  settled  and  established  in  the  Protestant  faith,  and  in,, the- 

quiet  enjoyment  of  property,  by  the  previous  energetic,  long, 
and  prosperous  reign  of  Elizabeth.  Her  successor  was  James 
VI.  of  Scotland,  now  become  James  I.  of  England  ;  and  here 
was  a  union  of  the  crowns,  but  not  of  the  kingdoms,  —  a  very 

important  distinction.      Ireland  was  held  by  a  military  powerj 

and  one  cannot  but  see  that  at  that  day,  whatever  may  be 
true  or  untrue  in  more  recent  periods  of  her  history,  Ireland 
was  held  by  England  by  the  two  great  potencies,  —  the  power  of 
the  sword  and  the  power  of  confiscation.  In  other  respects, 
England  was  nothing  like  the  England  which  we  now  behold. 
Her  foreign  possessions  were  quite  inconsiderable.  She  had  some 
hold  on  the  West  India  Islands  ;  she  had  Acadia,  or  Nova  Scotia, 
which  King  James  granted,  by  wholesale,  for  the  endowment  of 
the  knights  whom  he  created  by  hundreds.  And  what  has  been 
1  I  neither  support  nor  confute. 


TOO  DANIEL    WEBSTER. 

her  progress  ?  Did  she  then  possess  Gibraltar,  the  key  to  the 
Mediterranean  ?  Did  she  possess  a  port  in  the  Mediterranean  ? 
Was  Malta  hers  ?  Were  the  Ionian  Islands  hers  ?  Was  the 
southern  extremity  of  Africa,  was  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  hers  ? 
Were  the  whole  of  her  vast  possessions  in  India  hers  ?  Was  herj_ 
great  Australian  empire  hers  ?  WThile  that  branch  of  her  popula 
tion  which  followed  the  western  star,  and  under  its  guidance 
committed  itself  to  the  duty  of  settling,  fertilizing,  and  peopling 
an  unknown  wilderness  in  the  West,  were  pursuing  their  destinies, 
other  causes,  providential  doubtless,  were  leading  English  power_ 
eastward  and  southward,  in  consequence  and  by  means  of  her 
naval  prowess  and  the  extent  of  her  commerce,  until  in  our  day 
we  have  seen  that  within  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  western  coast 
and  at  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa,  in  Arabia,  in  hither 
India  and  farther  India,  she  has  a  population  ten  times  as  gre;it 
as  that  of  the  British  Isles  two  centuries  ago.  And  recently,  as 
we  have  witnessed,  —  I  will  not  say  with  how  much  truth  and 
justice,  policy  or  impolicy ;  I  do  not  speak  at  all  to  the  morality 
of  the  action,  I  only  speak  to  the  ./fa'/,  —  she  has  found  admission 
into  China,  and  has  carried  the  Christian  religion  and  the  Prot^_- 
estant  faith  to  the  doors  of  three  hundred  millions  of  people.1 

It  has  been  said  that  whosoever  would  see  the  Eastern  world 
before  it  turns  into  a  Western  world,  must  make  his  visit  soon, 
because  steamboats  and  omnibuses,  commerce,  and  all  the  arts  of 
Europe,  are  extending  themselves  from  Egypt  to  Suez,  from  Suez 
to  the  Indian  seas,  and  from  the  Indian  seas  all  over  the  explored 
regions  of  the  still  farther  East. 

I  AvNow,  gentlemen,  I  do  not  know  what  practical  views,  or  what 
practical  results,  may  take  place  from  this  great  expansion  of  the 
power  of  the  two  branches  of  Old  England.  It  is  not  for  me  to 
say.  I  only  can  see,  that  on  this  continent  all  is  to  be  Anglo- 
American,  from  Plymouth  Rock  to  the  Pacific  seas,  from  the 

1  The  war  between  China  and  Great  Britain,  known  as  the  "  opium  war," 
which  began  in  1834,  was  ended  by  the  treaty  of  Aug.  26,  1842.      By  the-  > 
conditions  of  this  treaty,  Hong-Kong  was  ceded  to  the  British. 


THE  LANDING  AT  PLYMOUTH.  101 

north  pole  to  California.1  That  is  certain ;  and  in  the  Eastern 
world  I  only  see  that  you  can  hardly  plar,e;a  n"i-gef  <M  a  map  of 
the  world,  and  be  an  inch  from  an  English  settlement. 

Gentlemen,  if  there  be  anything  in  the  supremacy  of  races,  the 
experiment  now  in  progress  will  develop  it.  If  there  be  any  truth 
in  the  idea  that  those  who  issued  from  the  great  Caucasian  foun 
tain,  and  spread  over  Europe,  are  to  react  on  India  and  on  Asia, 
and  to  act  on  the  whole  Western  world,  it  may  not  be  for  us,  nor 
our  children,  nor  our  grandchildren,  to  see  it,  but  it  will  be  for 
our  descendants  of  some  generation  to  see  the  extent  of  that 
progress  and  dominion  of  the  favored  races. 

For  myself,  I  believe  there  is  no  limit  fit  to  be  assigned  to  it 
by  the  human  mind,  because  I  find  at  work  everywhere,  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  under  various  forms  and  degrees  of  restric 
tion  on  the  one  hand,  and  under  various  degrees  of  motive  anc^ 
stimulus  on  the  other  hand,  in  these  branches  of  a  common  race, 
the  great  principle  of  the  freedom  of  human  thought  and  the  re 
spectability  of  individual  character.  I  find  everywhere  an  eleva 
tion  of  the  character  of  man  as  man,  an  elevation  of  the  individual 
as  a  component  part  of  society.  I  find  everywhere  a  rebuke  of 
the  idea  that  the  many  are  made  for  the  few,  or  that  govern 
ment  is  anything  but  an  agency  for  mankind.  And  I  care  not 
beneath  what  zone,  frozen,  temperate,  or  torrid ;  I  care  not  of 
what  complexion,  white  or  brown ;  I  care  not  under  what  cir 
cumstances  of  climate  or  cultivation,  —  if  I  can  find  a  race  of 
men  on  an  inhabitable  spot  of  earth  whose  general  sentiment  it 
is,  and  whose  general  feeling  it  is,  that  government  is  made  for 
man, — man  as  a  religious,  moral,  and  social  being,  —  and  not 
man  for  government,  there  I  know  that  I  shall  find  prosperity  and 
happiness. 

1  It  is  well  to  remember,  that,  when  these  words  were  spoken,  California 
was  a  province  of  Mexico,  inhabited  only  by  Indians  and  a  few  people  of 
Spanish  descent. 


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laws  and  principles  which  underlie  rhetorical  art,  and  then 
shows  their  use  and  application  in  the  different  processes 
and  kinds  of  composition.  It  is  clear,  simple,  and  logical 
in  its  treatment  throughout,  original  in  its  departure  from 
technical  rules  and  traditions,  copiously  illustrated  with 
examples  for  practice,  and  calculated  to  awaken  interest 
and  enthusiasm  in  the  study.  A  large  part  of  the  book  is 
devoted  to  instruction  and  practice  in  actual  composition 
work,  in  which  the  pupil  is  encouraged  to  follow  and  apply 
genuine  laboratory  methods, 

Waddy's  Elements  of  Composition  and   Rhetoric 

Cloth,  i2mo,  416  pages $1.00 

A  complete  course  in  Composition  and  Rhetoric,  with 
copious  exercises  in  both  criticism  and  construction.  It  is 
inductive  in  method,  lucid  in  style,  orderly  in  arrangement, 
and  clear  and  comprehensive  in  treatment.  Sufficiently 
elementary  for  the  lower  grades  of  high  school  classes  and 
complete  enough  for  all  secondary  schools. 


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American     Literature 

BY 

MILDRED  CABELL  WATKINS 

Flexible  cloth,  18mo,  224  pages        -        -  '      Price,  35  cents 


THE  eminently  practical  character  of  this  work  will 
at  once  commend  it  to  all  who  are  interested  in 
forming  and  guiding  the  literary  tastes  of  the  young, 
and  especially  to  teachers  who  have  long  felt  the  need  of  a 
satisfactory  text-book  in  American  literature  which  will 
give  pupils  a  just  appreciation  of  its  character  and  worth 
as  compared  with  the  literature  of  other  countries.  In 
this  convenient  volume  the  story  of  American  literature  is 
told  to  young  Americans  in  a  manner  which  is  at  once 
brief,  simple,  graceful,  and,  at  the  same  time,  impressive 
and  intelligible.  The  marked  features  and  characteristics 
of  this  work  may  be  stated  as  follows  : 

Due  prominence  is  given  to  the  works  of  the  real  makers  of  our 
American  literature. 

All  the  leading  authors  are  grouped  in  systematic  order  and  classes. 

Living  writers,  including  minor  authors,  are  also  given  their  proper 
share  of  attention. 

A  brief  summary  is  appended  to  each  chapter  to  aid  the  memory  in 
fixing  the  salient  facts  of  the  narrative. 

Estimates  of  the  character  and  value  of  an  author's  productions  are 
often  crystallized  in  a  single  phrase,  so  quaint  and  expressive  that  it  is 
not  easily  forgotten  by  the  reader. 

Numerous  select  extracts  from  our  greatest  writers  are  given  in  their 
proper  connection. 

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An   Introduction  to  the 

Study    of    American    Literature 

BY 

BRANDER  MATTHEWS 

Professor   of   Literature   in   Columbia   University 

Cloth,  12mo,  256  pages        -        -        -         Price,  $1.00 


A  text-book  of  literature  on  an  original  plan,  and  conforming  with 
the  best  methods  of  teaching. 

Admirably  designed  to  guide,  to  supplement,  and  to  stimulate  the 
student's  reading  of  American  authors. 

Illustrated  with  a  fine  collection  of  facsimile  manuscripts,  portraits 
of  authors,  and  views  of  their  homes  and  birthplaces. 

Bright,  clear,  and  fascinating,  it  is  itself  a  literary  work  of  high  rank. 

The  book  consists  mostly  of  delightfully  readable  and  yet  compre 
hensive  little  biographies  of  the  fifteen  greatest  and  most  representative 
American  writers.  Each  of  the  sketches  contains  a  critical  estimate  of 
the  author  and  his  works,  which  is  the  more  valuable  coming,  as  it  does, 
from  one  who  is  himself  a  master.  The  work  is  rounded  out  by  four 
general  chapters  which  take  up  other  prominent  authors  and  discuss  the 
history  and  conditions  of  our  literature  as  a  whole  ;  and  there  is  at  the 
end  of  the  book  a  complete  chronology  of  the  best  American  literature 
from  the  beginning  down  to  1896. 

Each  of  the  fifteen  biographical  sketches  is  illustrated  by  a  fine 
portrait  of  its  subject  and  views  of  his  birthplace  or  residence  and  in 
some  cases  of  both.  They  are  also  accompanied  by  each  author's 
facsimile  manuscript  covering  one  or  two  pages.  The  book  contains 
excellent  portraits  of  many  other  authors  famous  in  American  literature. 


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A  School  History 

of  the  United  States 

By  JOHN  BACH  MCMASTER 

Professor   of   American  History   in    the   University    of 
Pennsylvania. 

Linen,  I2mo,  507  pages.     With  maps  and  illustrations     •.         .      $I.OO 

This  new  history  of  our  country  is  marked  by  many 
original  and  superior  features  which  will  commend  it  alike 
to  teachers,  students,  and  general  readers.  The  narra 
tive  is  a  word-picture  of  the  great  events  and  scenes  of 
American  history,  told  in  such  a  way  as  to  awaken  enthu 
siasm  in  the  study  and  make  an  indelible  impression  on 
the  mind.  From  the  beginning  the  attention  of  the 
student  is  directed  to  causes  and  results,  and  he  is  thus 
encouraged  to  follow  the  best  methods  of  studying  history 
as  a  connected  growth  of  ideas  and  institutions,  and  not  a 
bare  compendium  of  facts  and  dates.  Special  prominence 
is  given  to  the  social,  industrial,  and  economic  develop 
ment  of  the  country,  to  the  domestic  life  and  institutions 
of  the  people,  and  to  such  topics  as  the  growth  of  inven 
tions,  the  highways  of  travel  and  commerce,  and  the  pro 
gress  of  the  people  in  art,  science,  and  literature.  The 
numerous  maps  give  vivid  impressions  of  the  early 
voyages,  explorations,  and  settlements,  of  the  chief  mili 
tary  campaigns,  of  the  territorial  growth  of  the  country, 
and  of  its  population  at  different  periods,  while  the 
pictures  on  almost  every  page  illustrate  different  phases  in 
the  civil  and  domestic  life  of  the  people. 


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sidered  separately.  The  selections  from  literature  are  not 
mere  fragments,  but  each  is  complete  in  itself. 

The  beautiful  folk-lore  of  the  Indians  has  given  us  Hiawatha  and 
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From  the  interminable  Epics  of  the  Oriental  World,  Sir  Edwin 
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Prescott,  There  has  been  no  attempt  to  preserve  chronological  order, 
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selections  have  never  appeared  in  any  previous  historical  reader. 


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Mythology 


Guerber's  Myths  of  Greece  and  Rome 

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Guerber's  Myths  of  Northern  Lands 

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Guerber's  Legends  of  the  Middle  Ages 

Cloth,  I2mo,  340  pages.     Illustrated       ....         $1.50 

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These  companion  volumes  present  a  complete  outline  of  Ancient 
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with  beautiful  reproductions  of  masterpieces  of  ancient  and  modern 
painting  and  sculpture. 

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For  this  purpose  the  myths  are  told  in  a  clear  and  charming  style  and  in 
a  connected  narrative  without  unnecessary  digressions.  To  show  the 
wonderful  influence  of  these  ancient  myths  in  literature,  numerous  and 
appropriate  quotations  from  the  poetical  writings  of  all  ages,  from 
Hesiod's  "  Works  and  Days  "  to  Tennyson's  "  CEnone,"  have  been  in 
cluded  in  the  text  in  connection  with  the  description  of  the  different 
myths  and  legends. 

Maps,  complete  glossaries  and  indexes  adapt  the  manuals  for  conven 
ient  use  in  schools,  libraries  or  art  galleries. 


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General    History 


Appletons'   School    History  of  the  World 

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A  comprehensive  history  of  the  world  from  the  earliest  ages  to  the 
present  time,  written  in  a  clear,  concise  and  interesting  style,  and  copi 
ously  illustrated  with  numerous  maps  and  engravings. 

Barnes's   Brief  General    History  of  the  World 

By  J.  DORMAN  STEELE  and  ESTHER  B.  STEELE. 

Cloth,  i2mo.     642  pages,      .         .         .         .         .         .         $1.60 

A  complete  history  of  ancient,  mediaeval  and  modern  peoples,  as 
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style  or  its  richness  of  illustration,  this  book  stands  preeminent  as  a 
manual  for  the  class  room  or  for  the  general  reader.  It  is  one  of  the  best 
known  and  most  widely  used  text-books  on  the  subject. 

Fisher's   Brief   History  of  the    Nations 
By  GEORGE  PARK  FISHER,  LL.D. 

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tion  from  the  earliest  historical  period  down  to  the  present  time.  It  is 
by  far  the  most  attractive,  impartial,  and  trustworthy  text-book  on  the 
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Swinton's  Outlines  of  the  World's   History 

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reference  to  the  history  of  civilization  and  the  progress  of  mankind.      It 

is  inspiring  to  the  student  and  its  use  will  stimulate  him  to  wider  reading 

and  research. 

Thalheimer's  General   History 

By  M.  E.  THALHEIMER. 

Revised  Edition.    Cloth,  I2mo.    448  pages,      .         .         .     $1.20 

These  outlines  of  General  History  aim  to  combine  brevity  with  a  clear 
and  simple  narrative.  The  large  number  of  sketch  and  colored  maps 
and  apposite  illustrations  constitute  an  important  feature  of  the  book, 
greatly  adding  to  its  value  as  a  text-book  or  for  reference. 


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Ancient,  Mediaeval  and  Modern  History 

Barnes's  Brief  History  of  Ancient  Peoples 
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Being  the  same  as  the  first  half  of  Barnes's  General  History  of  the 
World.     In  this  work  the  political  history  is  condensed  to  the  salient  and 
essential  facts,  in  order  to  give  room  for  a  clear  outline  of  the  literature, 
religion,  architecture,  character  and  habits  of  each  nation.     Though  de 
signed  primarily  for  a  text-book,  it  is  well  adapted  for  the  general  reader. 

Barnes's  Brief  History  of   Modern    Peoples 
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Being   the   same   as   the   last   half   of   Barnes's   General   History  of 

the  World,  and  comprising  the  period  from  the  fall  of  Rome  to   the 

present  time. 

Thalheimer's  Manual  of  Ancient  History 

Cloth,  8 vo.     376  pages.     With  maps  and  illustrations          ,         $1.60 
A  manual  of  ancient  history  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  fall  of  the 
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The  book  is  also  issued  in  three  parts,  each  part  sufficiently  full  and 
comprehensive  for  the  academic  and  university  course  : — 
Part  I.,  Eastern  Empires,  80  cts.       Part  II.,  History  of  Greece,  80  cts. 
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Thalheimer's   Mediaeval  and   Modern   History 

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A  sketch  of  fourteen  centuries,  conveying  by  a  simple  narration  of 

events,  an  impression  of  the  continuity  of  the  civil  history  of  Europe. 

Barnes's  Brief    History  of  Rome 

Cloth,  I2mo.     316  pages.     Illustrated          .         .         ,         .         $1.00 

With  select  readings   from    standard   authors,  on  the  plan  of  Brief 

History  of  Greece.     It  gives  a  very  good  idea  of  the  history  of  that 

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arts,  literature,  etc. 

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Fisher's  Brief  History  of  the  Nations 

AND   OF   THEIR    PROGRESS    IN    CIVILISATION 
By  GEORGE  PARK  FISHER,  LL.D. 

Professor  in  Yale  University 

Cloth,  12mo,  613  pages,  with  numerous  Illustrations,  Maps,  Tables,  and 
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This  is  an  entirely  new  work  written  expressly  to  meet 
the  demand  for  a  compact  and  acceptable  text-book  on 
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schools.  Some  of  the  distinctive  qualities  which  will  com 
mend  this  book  to  teachers  and  students  are  as  follows: 

It  narrates  in  fresh,  vigorous,  and  attractive  style  the 
most  important  facts  of  history  in  their  due  order  and 
connection*. 

It  explains  the  nature  of  historical  evidence,  and  records 
only  well  established  judgments  respecting  persons  and 
events. 

It  delineates  the  progress  of  peoples  and  nations  in. 
civilization  as  well  as  the  rise  and  succession  of  dynasties. 

It  connects,  in  a  single  chain  of  narration,  events  related 
to  each  other  in  the  contemporary  history  of  different 
nations  and  countries. 

It  gives  special  prominence  to  the  history  of  the 
Mediaeval  and  Modern  Periods,  —  the  eras  of  greatest 
import  to  modern  students. 

It  is  written  from  the  standpoint  of  the  present,  and 
incorporates  the  latest  discoveries  of  historical  explorers 
and  writers. 

It  is  illustrated  by  numerous  colored  maps,  genealog 
ical  tables,  and  artistic  reproductions  of  architecture, 
sculpture,  painting,  and  portraits  of  celebrated  men, 
representing  every  period  of  the  world's  history. 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


ECLECTIC    ENGLISH    CLASSICS 


ARNOLD'S  SOHRAB  AND  RUSTUM 20 

BURKE'S  SPEECH  ON  CONCILIATION 20 

BURNS'S  POEMS— Selections 20 

BYRON'S  POEMS— Selections 25 

CARLYLE'S  ESSAY  ON  ROBERT  BURNS 20 

CHAUCER'S  PROLOGUE  AND  KNIGHTE'S  TALE          ...  25 
COLERIDGE'S  RIME  OF  THE  ANCIENT  MARINER        .         .         .20 

COOPER'S  PILOT 40 

DEFOE'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  PLAGUE  IN  LONDON      ...  40 

DE  QLMNCEY'S  REVOLT  OF  THE  TARTARS         ....  20 

DRYDEN'S  PALAMON  AND  ARCITE 20 

EMERSON'S  AMERICAN   SCHOLAR,  SELF-RELIANCE,  COMPEN 
SATION    20 

FRANKLIN'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY 35 

GEORGE  ELIOT'S  SILAS  MARKER 30 

GOLDSMITH'S  VICAR  OF  WAKEFIELD 35 

GRAY'S  POEMS— Selections 20 

IRVING  S  SKETCH-BOOK— Selections 20 

IRVING'S  TALES  OF  A  TRAVELER 50 

MACALi^AY'S  SECOND  ESSAY  ON  CHATHAM      ....  20 

MACAULAY'S  ESSAY  ON  MILTON 20 

MACAULAY'S  ESSAY  OM  ADD1SON 20 

MACAULAY'S  LIFE  OF  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 20 

MILTON'S  L'ALLEGRO,  IL  PENSEROSO,  COMUS,  LYCIDAS          .  20 

MILTON'S  PARADISE  LOST— Books  I  and  II 20 

POPE'S  HOMER'S  ILIAD— Books  1,  VI,  XXII,  XXIV  ...  20 

POPE'S  RAPE  OF  THE  LOCK  and  ESSAY  ON  MAN      ...  20 

SCOTT'S  IVANHOE 50 

SCOTT'S  MARMION 40 

SCOTT'S  LADY  OF  THE  LAKE .30 

SCOTT'S  THE  ABBOT 60 

SCOTT'S  WOODSTOCK .  60 

SHAKESPEARE'S  JULIUS  CAESAR 20 

SHAKESPEARE'S  TWELFTH  NIGHT 20 

SHAKESPEARE'S  MERCHANT  OF  VENICE 20 

SHAKESPEARE'S  MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S  DREAM  ...  20 

SHAKESPEARE'S  AS  YOU  LIKE  IT 20 

SHAKESPEARE'S  MACBETH 20 

SHAKESPEARE'S  HAMLET 25 

SIR  ROGER  DE  COVERLEY  PAPERS 20 

SOUTHEY'S  LIFE  OF  NELSON 40 

TENNYSON'S  PRINCESS 20 

WEBSTER'S  BUNKER  HILL  ORATIONS 20 

WORDSWORTH'S  POEMS— Selections  20 


AMERICAN   BOOK   COMPANY 
New  York          *          Cincinnati          *          Chicago 


